Hillsboro from POTS to broadband
Bill Sims Contributing columnist
They used to call it POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service). According to Wikipedia, this was the standard phone service offered between 1876 and 1988. Of course, that all began to unravel when we gave birth to digital services and what came to be known as the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) think copper wire vs. fiber optics and radio waves.
The problem with POTS was that rural communities had difficulty getting services. It’s like our experiences with cable networks. There was more profit installing cable infrastructure in densely populated communities. Early on, POTS actually stood for Post Office Telephone Services, where rural residents had to connect through their post offices.
By Lauren C. Williams
Calls for a certified baseline of cybersecurity seem to increase with every cyberattack. And the recent ransomware attack that shut down the East Coast s largest fuel pipeline, Colonial Pipeline, is no exception.
The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program is one of several Defense Department efforts to improve both its own cyber defenses and those of its industry partners. CMMC has been touted as a potential standard that could expand beyond the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) to cover all government contractors. But the core CMMC program is still taking shape, and it s unclear how that will look in the future.
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18 May, 2021 Author Anna AkinsSarah Barry James
A grand experiment by U.S. wireless carriers to make and distribute video content appears to be coming to an end, as AT&T Inc. joins Verizon Communications Inc. in preparing to shed its media business.
While the timing of AT&T s May 17 announcement that it planned to combine its WarnerMedia assets with Discovery Inc. to form a new, stand-alone entity surprised Wall Street, analysts said the move underscores the difficulty for U.S. companies to compete effectively in both the wireless and streaming markets, each of which requires significant investments to stay ahead of rivals.
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PORTSMOUTH, NH The coronavirus pandemic forced millions of workers and students to work and learn remotely, but a large swath of Americans aren t able to connect to the internet at minimum broadband speeds.
The FCC estimates that 30 million Americans don t have broadband access including more than six out of 10 rural residents, but some estimates put the total far higher. Tens of millions more do not access the internet at minimum broadband speeds even when it is available. See below for estimates by ZIP code in the Portsmouth area.
Determining the exact areas where broadband usage is lacking is critical to bridging the digital divide, a term that expresses how differences in access to computers and the internet create barriers to opportunities in employment and education.