Weekly output: Mark Vena podcast, Verizon customer service, AI fair use, Comcast ditches data caps, Aurora’s autonomous trucks, age verification for porn sites, Universal Service Fund, Trump tariffs

The first half of this year is almost in the books, which means I’m thinking of a few longer pieces that I’d meant to have seen published and paid for by now but instead have yet to start writing.

Patreon readers got an extra post from me this week: a recap of how Uber rides in Mexico City helped me realize how much trouble cheap Chinese EVs are going to cause for Tesla.

6/23/2025: Ep 112 SmartTechCheck Podcast — Apple WWDC 25, Apple Intelligence, OpenAI device, Trump phone, Mark Vena

I suggested that this podcast cover the exercise in commercialized cult worship that is Trump Mobile. Two days after we recorded the show, that site’s description of the T1 phone that it plans to sell changed from “proudly made right here in the USA” to “brought to life right here in the USA.”

6/24/2025: Verizon Touts Upgraded Customer Service Push: Will It Make a Difference?, PCMag

Put me down as a skeptic of the difference that customer service can make in broadband: I can’t remember when I last called either my wireless carrier or my Internet provider for help.

6/24/2025: Judge: It’s Fair Use to Train AI on Books You Bought, But Not Ones You Pirated, PCMag

I found this case interesting for two reasons: It did not involve any claims of AI plagiarism and it allowed for a distinction between training AI models on purchased content and training it on pirated material. That last point should have Silicon Valley nervious, since so many large firms–hi, Meta–could not resist taking that copyright-infringing shortcut.

6/26/2025: Comcast’s New Plans Dump the Data Caps, PCMag

This is a post I have wanted to be able to write for years. I guess seeing enough subscribers flee for unlimited-data offerings of fiber and fixed-wireless services had a persuasive effect on Comcast’s management that my own posts denouncing this exercise in abuse of market power did not.

6/27/2025: Aurora hits a self-driving trucking milestone, Fast Company

One of my editors suggested that Aurora launching commercial deliveries via its self-driving trucks meant it was time to revisit the company I’d profiled for Fast Co. last summer. Conveniently enough, Aurora’s president Ossa Fisher was one of the speakers at Web Summit Vancouver, allowing me to interview her IRL during that conference.

6/27/2025: Sorry, Pornhub Fans: Supreme Court Upholds Texas Age-Verification Law, PCMag

I had this case on my list of opinions to look for on the Supreme Court’s site Friday morning, with an idea that my lede would have to reference Avenue Q’s “The Internet Is For Porn” regardless of the outcome. I’m surprised nobody else seems to have gone with that. After publication, my editor added statements about the decision from a few interested parties.

6/27/2025: That ‘Universal Service Charge’ on Your Phone Bill Isn’t Going Away, PCMag

As I was working on a post about the Texas case, I saw this opinion pop up and realized that I should write about that as well. In the hours that passed, my inbox accumulated comments from a variety of groups–including telecom trade associations that in other scenarios want the government to butt out–applauding this decision.

6/28/2025: For Electronics Makers in Latin America, the Roller-Coaster Ride Is Worse Than Just Paying a High Tariff, PCMag

I started writing this piece from my hotel in Mexico City hours before my departure and then needed another week to check with NielsenIQ to see if they had any stats about the effects of tariffs on the country and then find time to finish and file the thing.

#ageVerification #AITraining #Anthropic #Aurora #autonomousTrucks #autonomousVehicles #Comcast #ComcastDataCaps #copyright #dataCaps #ElectronicsHomeMexico #FirstAmendment #LLMs #MarkVena #podcast #SupremeCourt #tariffs #UniversalServiceFund #USF #VerizonCustomerService #VerizonSupport #Vz #Xfinity

Oh, cable companies are comparing data caps to restaurant menus? Imagine if Olive Garden charged you $10 every time you exceeded their "unlimited" breadsticks limit! 🍝

Next they'll tell us buffet restaurants should charge by the bite. Nice try, ISPs. Internet access isn't a luxury menu item. #DataCaps #BroadbandAccess

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/10/1527234/cable-groups-fight-data-cap-regulation-with-restaurant-analogies

Please ban data caps, Internet users tell #FCC
#isp #datacaps

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/please-ban-data-caps-internet-users-tell-fcc/

The FCC is looking into the impact of broadband data caps and why they still exist

FCC approved a notice of inquiry to examine whether data caps harm consumers and competition, as well as why data caps persist “despite increased broadband needs” and the “technical ability to offer unlimited data plans"

#FCC #broadband #internet #ISP #connectivity #datacaps #data #technology #tech

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/15/24271148/fcc-data-cap-impact-consumers-inquiry

The FCC takes aim at broadband data caps | PCWorld

"it’s important to note that this new FCC inquiry covers both standard “landline” internet access and mobile access, the latter of which the Commission has been more hesitant to regulate over presumably justified limits to manage ballooning wireless traffic on limited spectrum. It’s a big change in the scope of the FCC’s authority."

@MichaelCrider

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2491457/the-fcc-takes-aim-at-broadband-data-caps.html

#FCC #Broadband #DataCaps #InternetAccess

#FCC #Republican opposes #regulation of data caps with analogy to coffee refills
#datacaps

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/fcc-republican-opposes-regulation-of-data-caps-with-analogy-to-coffee-refills/

data caps should be illegal. I shouldn't have the equivalent of 1990s dial-up in the 2020s.

#DataCaps #NetNeutrality #throttling #internet #DialUp