News
Broadband expansion on hold as feds miss self-imposed deadline to review Pa.’s spending plan
2+ hour, 14+ min ago (530+ words) Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand broadband access in Pennsylvania is still on hold, after federal officials failed to meet their self-imposed early December deadline to review the commonwealth's plan for spending the money. Without federal approval, Pennsylvania cannot…...
Pa. officials urge lawmakers to tax data centers, offset home energy spikes
7+ hour, 53+ min ago (520+ words) Consumer advocates and a Pennsylvania public utility commissioner are urging state lawmakers to tax data centers and other large energy users to help lower residents" energy bills. "Data centers must pay their own way," Lawrence said. Currently, Pennsylvania has no…...
Verizon just had a big outage. Here's what we know
5+ day, 16+ hour ago (490+ words) The biggest mobile network in the United States, Verizon, experienced a huge outage on Wednesday, leaving at least tens of thousands of customers without cell service for much of the day. An update on Verizon's website Thursday said the outage…...
There's an internet blackout in Iran. How are videos and images getting out?
5+ day, 20+ hour ago (779+ words) Iranian authorities have implemented a near-total shutdown of the internet in a crackdown on widespread anti-government protests, but a sliver of the population is keeping in touch with the outside world by satellite. Starlink, a division of Elon Musk's rocket…...
FTC accuses AI search engine of 'rampant consumer deception"
1+ week, 15+ hour ago (533+ words) A search engine powered by artificial intelligence known as Pearl promotes itself as a distinctive service. It offers up answers generated by a large language model then a human gets involved for follow-up questions and fact checking. There's just one…...
Pennsylvanians have until Monday to comment on data center connection guidelines
1+ mon, 2+ day ago (360+ words) Data center companies are planning to build in Pennsylvania, where there are no uniform rules about how the massive energy users should be built or how they connect to the electric grid. The state's utility regulator has proposed guidelines for…...
Pittsburgh-area hyperscale data center gets green light
1+ mon, 4+ day ago (739+ words) A controversial data center has won approval from an Allegheny County borough. The Springdale borough council voted 5-2 Tuesday to grant a conditional use permit to Allegheny DC Property Company. The company needs the permit to build a data center at…...
Pa. Gov. Shapiro urges feds to consider comments on data centers connecting to PJM grid
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (548+ words) Gov. Josh Shapiro is urging federal energy officials to consider comments from consumer advocates, state utility regulators and power companies before deciding a case that could determine how AI data centers and other large electricity users connect to the grid....
Bill advances mandating bell-to-bell cellphone bans in Pa. schools
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (356+ words) School districts " whether public or private " across the commonwealth may be required to draft a policy prohibiting student cellphones with limited exceptions following a unanimous vote in the state Senate Education Committee Tuesday. Sens. Devlin Robinson (R-Allegheny) and Steven Santarsiero…...
Electric grid covering Pa. failing to plan for responsible data center load growth, observers say
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (472+ words) Power grid observers say the operator responsible for the regional flow of electricity is not doing enough about energy-hungry data centers. The independent watchdog for grid operator PJM and governors in PJM-served states are calling for the agency to make…...