Fiber internet available to over 80,000 KUB customers as network buildout reaches halfway point
KUB Fiber is now available to all KUB customers in Union and Grainger counties, with upcoming construction planned for Sevier and Jefferson counties. In 2025, KUB Fiber will be available to customers in Seymour, Strawberry Plains, Holston Hills, additional portions of North Knox County, and other areas.
Knoxville companies breathing new life into 100-year-old laundry service building
Work on the third and final phase of the fiber network construction will begin in 2026, giving all KUB electric customers access to high-speed internet while improving electric reliability.
Efforts to build out the fiber network began in late 2021 before rolling out to some customers in 2022. In 2024, KUB launched its ConnectED program to provide free KUB Fiber services to income-eligible K-12 student households in Knox County through funding from the City of Knoxville and Knox County. The program currently serves 182 students and continues to expand.
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Visit kub.org/fiber for more information and to check if KUB fiber is available in your area.
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Politico
3 days ago
- Politico
The tech deal behind DOJ drama
A major deal between two tech companies is threatening to tear the Department of Justice's antitrust division apart. The DOJ this week reportedly fired two senior antitrust officials, and the story so far has been insidey, gossipy and shrouded in mystery about intra-Republican tensions. The Wall Street Journal reports that the officials — Roger Alford and William Rinner, who had served in the department during President Donald Trump's first term — were fired for insubordination after weeks of discord within the division about a corporate acquisition. The firing also calls into question the future of antitrust chief Gail Slater's tech enforcement agenda. Curiously, the deal at the center of the drama was — if anything — a run-of-the-mill antitrust case. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a wireless network company, proposed to acquire another internet services company called Juniper Networks in 2024, for $14 billion. Juniper was known for its innovations in incorporating AI into wireless systems, and like seemingly every other company in the tech world, HPE wanted to build more AI into its business. But the purchase rang antitrust alarm bells. Prior to the merger, HPE and Juniper were the second and third largest companies in the wireless network market respectively, behind Cisco. The DOJ sued in January to block the merger — its first antitrust challenge under Trump's second term. And then, abruptly, it dropped the case and settled in June, after winning some relatively small-bore concessions from the companies. According to the Journal, the firings were the result of an internal feud — and specifically, an argument over the potential influence of Trump-connected lawyers hired by HPE. This followed reporting by CBS that DOJ higher-ups had overruled Slater and her antitrust division to accept HPE's settlement offer and drop the suit. The department, in a statement, wrote to DFD that the decision 'was based only on the merits of the transaction.' An official at the White House told DFD that the allegations of political meddling in the deal were 'inaccurate and untrue,' and that it had not held a meeting regarding HPE in the past several weeks. So how did the HPE lawsuit end up the source of such internal drama? Legal experts told my colleague Nate Robson, when it was filed in January, that this was a pretty cookie-cutter case. The issue instead is the way that it ended, when the DOJ settled the case less than a week before it was set to go to trial. 'Settling close to trial isn't unusual,' said William Kovacic, chair of the FTC under President George W. Bush. 'Settling on weak terms is.' When the DOJ filed its challenge to the acquisition with a federal court in San Francisco, the department seemed to have a strong case. It contended that the two companies were fierce competitors. The complaint noted that HPE had been lowering prices and improving products to maintain its lead — the kinds of benefits to consumers that antitrust law is supposed to promote. Kovacic told DFD the department had convincingly alleged that the merger could lead to a 'significant increase in concentration' of power in a 'properly defined relevant market' in a way that would harm consumers. 'That usually is enough to create a presumption of illegality,' he said. HPE hired two Trump-connected lawyers to press its case, according to both the Journal and CBS. In June, the DOJ abruptly settled with the two companies. The settlement stipulated that the merger could go through if HPE divested its Instant On business for campus network services. It would also have to license Juniper's AI Mist system for local wireless networks. Some argue that those terms aren't quite commensurate with the DOJ's original concerns. 'The complaint on its face tells a pretty general story about harm to competition in the wireless solution market, including pretty big enterprise customers,' said Daniel Francis, who served as a deputy competition director at the Federal Trade Commission during Trump's first term. 'The proposed solution package seems much narrower.' (Francis, who worked with both Alford and Rinner during Trump's first term, called them 'straight shooters.') The Instant On business primarily serves certain small and medium-sized organizations, not larger ones. Francis added that the particular AI application was only one component of the broader competitive concerns. These legal oddities have fueled even more granular suspicions about politics driving the decision. A former official in the department's antitrust division pointed DFD to the signature page of the settlement agreement, which does not include any career antitrust attorneys. 'The moment I saw it, the moment many of my other former colleagues saw, it screamed [to us] as something strange happened here,' said the official, who asked not to be named due to confidentiality restrictions. While this may indicate that career antitrust officials didn't have much say in the matter, it's at least plausible that there were solid, non-political reasons. Axios reported on Wednesday that intelligence officials intervened to persuade the DOJ that the merger would be critical for competing with China-backed companies. It's unclear how exactly this would impact national security, though HPE does contract with the Department of Defense. However, this looks to some like a fig leaf. Douglas Farrar, an FTC official during the Biden administration, wrote on X that the intelligence community in his experience would 'never step in to stop a regulator from blocking an illegal deal.' Kovacic said there needs to be a strong national security case for it to play a major factor. 'You've got to explain in what way the merger implicates those concerns,' said Kovacic. 'You cannot get your deal through simply by coming in and saying, 'China, China, China.'' The White House doubles down on AI exports One of Trump's top tech officials made the case Wednesday for pushing American AI technology abroad despite the risks of it falling into the hands of foreign adversaries, POLITICO's Mohar Chatterjee reports. Michael Kratsios, director of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, argued at a national security event that increasing AI exports is the best way to compete with China. 'Everyone in the world should be using our technology, and we should make it easy for the world to use it,' Kratsios said during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He added, 'If most countries around the world are running on an AI stack that isn't American and potentially ones of an adversary, that's a really, really big problem.' Krastios further asserted that security measures like tracking shipments and verifying the identities of customers could keep restricted U.S. technology out of China's hands. Kratsios's comments come as critics raise concerns over the administration's decisions to send chips to build data centers in the Middle East, and resumed sales of Nvidia's H20 chips to China. EU deal leaves open questions on tech rules After striking a trade deal Sunday to avoid a battle of tariffs, the European Union and U.S. now have differing views on how it would affect tech regulations, POLITICO Europe reports. In broad strokes, the handshake deal places a 15 percent tariff on goods from the EU and calls for multi-billion-dollar purchases of U.S. military and energy products. Not mentioned in the agreement to the chagrin of some Republicans and tech leaders are strict EU laws that restrict AI development, content moderation and data collection. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had previously said such tech regulations were not up for debate, and an EU official told POLITICO Monday that the bloc had not made any commitments regarding them. A day later, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spoke of the EU's 'attack on our tech companies' on CNBC. 'That's going to be on the table,' he said. post of the day THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Aaron Mak (amak@ Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@
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5 days ago
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Nxtra by Airtel signs power-wheeling agreement with AMPIN Energy for 125.65 MW solar-wind hybrid via ISTS
Nxtra by Airtel has taken another major step towards sustainability by expanding its partnership with AMPIN Energy Transition. The two companies have signed a new power-wheeling agreement for 125.65 MW of solar-wind hybrid energy through Inter-State Transmission System (ISTS)-connected plants. With this, their total renewable energy collaboration now exceeds 200 MW. This additional green energy capacity will be supplied to Nxtra in two phases through captive projects located in Rajasthan and Karnataka. Until now, AMPIN has been delivering solar power to Nxtra's data centres via intra-state open access in states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Odisha. Under the new agreement, AMPIN will expand its renewable energy footprint to 11 more states and bring in advanced ISTS-connected projects and large-scale energy delivery from a single Independent Power Producer (IPP). The move aims to enhance Nxtra's infrastructure efficiency, reduce its carbon footprint, and solidify its position as the country's leading provider of sustainable data centre solutions. AMPIN's scalable energy solutions and focus on long-term partnerships continue to set the benchmark in India's renewable energy space. Nxtra is aligning its efforts with its Net Zero goal, now officially validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). It has also joined the global RE100 initiative in June 2024, becoming the first data centre company in India—and only the 14th Indian company overall—to commit to sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewables. With this expanded alliance, Nxtra and AMPIN aim to show how large-scale renewable energy partnerships can reshape the digital infrastructure landscape through innovation, efficiency, and sustainability. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication . A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication ,content writing and copy writing. Aman is currently working as journalist at
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Yahoo
Automakers are going big on in-car subscriptions. Are customers buying it?
Consumers don't want to pay for it. Automakers are still pushing hard. In-car subscriptions have become a growing obsession for many automakers which see strong revenue potential from recurring customer payments. But it appears that initial attempts to paywall built-in hardware and software features, such as cameras, sensors or navigation perks, haven't been too successful, with few drivers willing to take on yet another monthly bill. That has brought automakers to their next challenge: convincing customers to subscribe. An S&P Global Mobility survey this month found the number of respondents who were willing to pay for connected services in their vehicle dropped to 68 per cent this year, compared with 86 per cent in 2024. "Subscription-based services (navigation, Wi-Fi, etc.) are increasingly being met with resistance from price-sensitive consumers who may not see the value in paying recurring fees for features they do not frequently use," the report said. Drivers now have a range of options to subscribe to: semi-autonomous driving, roadside assistance, in-vehicle apps, stolen vehicle assistance and access to Wi-Fi — all at different price tiers. However, steep subscription costs on top of sticker prices of new vehicles remain one of the biggest barriers for many consumers. To get past that, some automakers are offering temporary complementary access to connective services in hopes of gaining loyal customers. Ford Motor Co.'s semi-autonomous driving feature costs between $650 and $900 per year after a 90-day free trial, for example. General Motors Co.'s OnStar subscription can be as high as $39.99 a month after a free trial, according to its website. Automakers which are known for their affordable prices have also joined the race for subscription-based connected services. Kia Corp., for example, has a three-tier subscription offering for owners following a three-year free trial period, which offers services such as a charging station locator, digital key access via smartphone and roadside emergency services. The subscription model is in its evolution phase, said Stephanie Brinley, associate director of autointelligence at S&P Global Mobility. "We're trying to figure out what consumers are willing to pay for, how much they're willing to, (and) how they want it bundled," she said. Despite the initial resistance, automakers haven't given up yet. Instead, they're rolling out brand new technology and features in the hopes of enticing drivers to pay for subscriptions. "They're pivoting to that new tech," said Daniel Ross, senior manager of industry insights with Canadian Black Book. "It's more on what's new and what they've never had before." Ross said as newer technology comes out, there will be more opportunities for automakers to release new generations of cars with updated software. And that's one of the pitches for customers to subscribe, he added. "If you want that type of technology that's advanced, that's the newest age, that's something you can tell your friends about, this is the way you pay for it," Ross said. Brinley said automakers are building a road map to help scale this in-car technology and these features to make it more affordable for consumers in the long run — all while keeping personalization at its core. "Once you have the platform and the service developed, the margin is really high," Brinley said. "The fact that it's connected is not really the element that consumers get excited about," she said. "It's what does that connectivity do for you as an owner?" Some customers may find value in GM's OnStar safety and security package that alerts for help during a crash, while others may subscribe to Ford's self-driving feature for a month-long road trip. "The appeal of a feature is that it makes driving easier," she said. Brinley said automakers have started to talk about their revenue expectations from subscription-based services more concretely. That "means they're making progress," she said. On recent earnings calls, GM projected revenue from its hands-free feature, Super Cruise, will be more than $200 million in 2025 and is expected to more than double in 2026. Meanwhile, Ford said the number of its vehicles equipped with the hands-free driving feature, BlueCruise, have more than doubled in the last year to just under 700,000 units. "You can see our relationship with our customers no longer ends the point of sale or financing. We're starting to build lasting relationships and creating new avenues for reoccurring growth at Ford," CEO Jim Farley told analysts during its fourth-quarter earnings call. Ross said automakers are banking on the trickle-down effect of the connected services subscription. Often, features first introduced to high-end customers gradually filter their way down to mainstream customers, who are looking for affordable and budget-conscious options, he explained. Brinley said the subscription model is still in its early stages. As it progresses, so will consumer expectations. "If you have a car that has some of these features and then you go to buy the next car, you think that it just should be there," Brinley said. As consumers get more used to connectivity, their expectation of what comes with a vehicle and what they're going to pay will also evolve, she said. "There's probably going to be a lot of flexibility over time in how people choose to consume that," Brinley said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 25, 2025. Ritika Dubey, The Canadian Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
