A year ago, Congress asked for a plan that would provide affordable broadband service to all America’s citizens. On March 16th, the Federal Communications Commission responded with a non sequitur: a national wireless plan which is good in its way, but which largely fails to tackle the problem it was asked to solve. … more

Thailand’s government will present a plan in two months to “create a level playing field” for telecom companies that includes possible compensation for changes to concessions, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said. … more

China Mobile Ltd., the world’s biggest mobile operator by subscribers, is looking at acquisition and investment targets in Asia and Africa as profit growth slows at home, its chairman said Friday. … more

Access to broadband internet might once have been seen as a luxury, but increasingly it’s viewed as an economic necessity. As this OECD report (pdf) suggests, investment in fast access can bring returns all sorts of ways. These include allowing the creation of “smart” electricity grids, which can lower power consumption; gathering and providing transport information, which can lower commuting time; and making greater use of the internet in education and healthcare, for instance by allowing doctors to monitor patients at a distance. … more

The cost of international telecommunications and internet connectivity is expected to drop significantly next July, this year, after the East African sub marine cable system (EASSY) becomes available. … more

Africa has the lowest number of internet users in the world, a problem that has prevented its inhabitants from enjoying the benefits of digital media. … more

The world has become smaller. The connections established by e-mail and websites have significantly shortened the distances between people. We can live in London and shop in Johannesburg; we can be based in Brussels and run a business out of Bombay. … more

European governments are not doing enough to improve online security - leaving the entire continent vulnerable to cyberattack, according to a new parliamentary investigation. … more

As a student of the Yale Law School more than 40 years ago, I audited a course in conflicts of laws taught by the Israeli academic Avigdor Levontin. His course began with the 1808 English case of Buchanan v Rucker, in which the plaintiff sued a nonresident of Tobago in Tobago courts by posting a summons near the Tobago court house door. … more

The National Broadband Plan that the Federal Communications Commission released Tuesday is ambitious in the right way, staking out such immodest national goals as building the most innovative and fastest wireless networks on the planet and vastly improving the wired infrastructure within a decade. But the commission moved so cautiously toward those goals, it’s hard to see at this point how it’s going to reach them. … more