A bill that would make it easier for telephone companies to sell cable TV may be put to a vote again in the Texas statehouse this week, revived for the second time since May courtesy of an unrelated stalemate over public school funding. The wide-ranging telecommunications bill, approved by separate House and Senate committees on Thursday, is one of several initiatives in statehouses around the nation and in Congress that would enable phone companies to avoid the arduous task of securing thousands of local cable TV licenses. Those efforts have already stalled in Virginia and New Jersey, two of the states where Verizon Communications Inc. and SBC Communications Inc. are investing billions of dollars to upgrade their local phone networks to deliver TV and faster Internet connections.
The digital wallet evolution represents far more than a convenient alternative to carrying physical payment cards or cash. What began as a pandemic-driven necessity has evolved into a fundamental reimagining of financial services delivery. As these platforms mature into comprehensive financial ecosystems, they're addressing one of the most persistent challenges in modern commerce: ensuring that everyone can participate in the Global Networked Economy . Digital wallet transactions surged 110 percent between 2020 and 2025, propelled initially by health concerns but sustained by genuine value creation. Juniper Research projects the user base will expand from 4.5 billion in 2025 to 6 billion by 2030, representing more than three-quarters of the global population. Digital Wallet Market Development What makes this expansion compelling is the diversity of wallet architectures emerging to serve different market needs. Open-loop systems like PayPal have achieved global reach through their f...