Enlarge / SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket stands on Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center before the launch of the Jupiter 3 communications satellite. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann/Ars Technica)

The heaviest commercial communications satellite ever built is folded up for launch on top of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket Wednesday night from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This satellite, owned by EchoStar and built by Maxar, tips the scales at about 9.2 metric tons, or more than 20,000 pounds. SpaceX's Falcon Heavy will propel the spacecraft on its way toward an operating position in geostationary orbit more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.

The action will begin at 11:04 p.m. EDT (03:04 UTC) with the ignition of the Falcon Heavy's 27 main engines on Launch Complex 39A. A few moments later, the Falcon Heavy will climb away from its launch pad and head downrange toward the east from the Kennedy Space Center. You can watch SpaceX's live webcast below.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | wigglestick)

The Federal Communications Commission hasn't raised its broadband speed standard since early 2015 when it adopted a metric of 25Mbps downloads and 3Mbps uploads.

That could finally change under Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who is proposing a fixed broadband standard of 100Mbps downloads and 20Mbps uploads along with a goal of bringing affordable service at those speeds to all Americans. Under her plan, the FCC would evaluate broadband availability, speeds, and prices to determine whether to take regulatory actions to promote network deployment and competition.

Rosenworcel hasn't revealed anything about how affordability will be measured. But in a proposed Notice of Inquiry that would start an evaluation of broadband deployment across the US, she included affordability as one of the aspects to be considered.

Enlarge / Artist's illustration of Amazon's Kuiper satellite processing facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. (credit: Amazon )

Within a few years, Amazon hopes to be building and launching up to 80 satellites per month to populate the company's Kuiper constellation , a $10 billion network that is similar to fleets already operated by SpaceX and OneWeb providing Internet connectivity around the world.

In the next six months, Amazon plans to begin production of operational Kuiper satellites at a new 172,000-square-foot factory in Kirkland, Washington. On Friday, officials from Amazon and the Florida government announced that a 100,000-square-foot facility under construction at NASA's Kennedy Space Center will serve as a satellite processing facility dedicated to the Kuiper program.

Inside this facility near the old space shuttle landing strip, engineers will mount Kuiper satellites onto huge orbital deployer mechanisms standing several stories tall, then encapsulate the structure inside the nose cones of their rockets. The fully integrated payload compartments will then move out to launch pads operated by United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin—the space company established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a few miles away.

Enlarge / This artist's illustration of the ViaSat-3 Americas satellites shows the spacecraft as it would appear with its large reflector antenna fully deployed. (credit: Viasat )

A new Viasat communications satellite launched in April has been crippled by a problem when unfurling its huge mesh antenna. The problem jeopardizes Viasat’s much-needed refresh to its space-based Internet network that would let it better compete with newer broadband offerings from companies like SpaceX and OneWeb.

Viasat confirmed the antenna problem Wednesday after it was first reported by Space Intel Report . The satellite in question is named ViaSat-3 Americas, and it launched on April 30 as the primary payload on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The satellite is one of the most powerful commercial spacecraft ever built, with two solar array wings as wide as a Boeing 767 jetliner capable of generating more than 30 kilowatts of electricity. The solar panels deployed soon after the spacecraft arrived in orbit, and the next step was to unfurl a large reflector to bounce Internet signals between the ground and transmitters and receivers on board the main body of the satellite.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Andrey Denisyuk)

The Biden administration today announced how much broadband-deployment funding each US state and territory will be eligible to receive from a $42.45 billion grant program.

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program was approved by Congress in November 2021 and will pay Internet service providers to expand networks in unserved and underserved areas. The BEAD money is being distributed to states by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Texas leads the way with $3.31 billion in today's allocations, followed by California with $1.86 billion. Nineteen states will get at least $1 billion.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Smith Collection/Gado )

Comcast is not happy about new federal rules that will require it to provide broadband customers with labels displaying exact prices and other information about Internet service plans.

Broadband label that ISPs will be required to display to consumers at the point of sale. (credit: FCC)

In a filing last week, Comcast told the Federal Communications Commission that it is "working diligently to put in place the systems and processes necessary to create, maintain, and display the labels as required." But according to Comcast, "two aspects of the Commission's Order impose significant administrative burdens and unnecessary complexity in complying with the broadband label requirements."

Comcast noted that five major cable and telecom industry trade groups petitioned the FCC in January to change the rules. Comcast's new filing urged the FCC to grant the petition "as soon as possible before the rules become effective to help providers streamline and simplify their labeling processes, which will ultimately benefit consumers."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Yuichiro Chino)

Fiber-to-the-home Internet service is the clear favorite of US broadband users, but unfortunately most people in the US have no access to the technology, the American Customer Satisfaction Index said today.

"Across the entire customer experience, fiber service shows a strong advantage—from data transfer speed and service reliability to touchpoints like call centers and websites," Forrest Morgeson, ACSI director of research emeritus and a marketing professor at Michigan State University, said in a press release announcing the ACSI's latest research. "That said, with well over half of US households lacking access to fiber internet, availability remains a sticking point. As such, non-fiber ISP services remain an attractive option for many customers and should not be overlooked by providers."

One reason that customers like fiber is that it offers higher upload speeds than cable and other technologies. But cable companies dominate the US broadband market. According to data from Leichtman Research Group , the top US cable companies had 76.2 million broadband subscribers by the end of Q1 2023. The top wireline phone companies had 30.8 million Internet subscribers including both fiber and slower DSL.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Alicia Llop)

The European Union government is seeking public input on a controversial proposal to make online platforms pay for telecom companies' broadband network upgrades and expansions. If it goes forward, tech companies like Google and Netflix and possibly many others could have to make payments toward the financing of broadband network deployment.

The European Commission's exploratory consultation released today said there "seems to be a paradox between increasing volumes of data on the infrastructures and alleged decreasing returns and appetite to invest in network infrastructure." Large telecom companies have been seeking payments from web companies, the consultation notes:

Some electronic communications operators, notably the incumbents, call for the need to establish rules to oblige those content and application providers ("CAPs") or digital players in general who generate enormous volumes of traffic to contribute to the electronic communications network deployment costs. In their view, such contribution would be "fair" as those CAPs and digital players would take advantage of the high-quality networks but would not bear the cost of their roll-out.

The tech companies that would have to start paying "argue that any payments for accessing networks to deliver content or for the amount of traffic transmitted would not only be unjustified, as the traffic is requested by end-users and costs are not necessarily traffic-sensitive (notably in fixed networks), but would also endanger the way the Internet works and likely breach net neutrality rules," the document notes.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Matt Anderson Photography)

Nevada's US senators say the Federal Communications Commission's new, more detailed broadband maps have tens of thousands of mistakes in their state alone.

"Nevada’s Office of Science, Innovation, & Technology (OSIT) has found over 20,000 purported broadband-serviceable locations on the map that they believe overstate coverage. They also have found incorrect information on the quality of service available to some locations and in some cases, missing serviceable locations," Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) wrote in a letter to the FCC last week.

The FCC's new broadband-availability information shows which addresses have service based on data submitted by Internet service providers, so mistakes would indicate that broadband companies are claiming to serve more homes and businesses than they actually do. The senators' reference to "missing serviceable locations" also suggests the FCC failed to include every home or business location in its list of addresses.