April 2016

INTERNET/BROADBAND

WHITE HOUSE STATEMENT ON LIFELINE
[SOURCE: The White House, AUTHOR: R David Edelman]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took a landmark step toward President Barack Obama's ConnectALL goal of getting 20 million more Americans online by 2020 by approving a national subsidy to help low-income Americans pay for broadband. These changes to the FCC’s Lifeline program will help millions more Americans get online at a price they can afford, and open up the market for more competition to serve their connectivity needs. In today’s digital age, connectivity is opportunity. Those on the wrong side of the digital divide have a tougher time getting the skills they require for higher-paying jobs, applying to job openings once they have those skills, helping their kids with homework, or even just getting better prices on life’s necessities — even though they’re among those who need it most.That’s why the move by the FCC is so important. There’s more work to do. Today, families that earn less than $25,000 a year are half as likely to have Internet at home than those who are well-off. So earlier in March the President announced ConnectALL: to help mobilize a national effort by the government, private sector, and non-profits to give more Americans access to the affordable broadband, digital literacy tools, and devices they need to open up a world of online opportunity. In just one month, we’ve made real progress. Connecting 20 million more Americans by 2020 is an ambitious goal, but today, the FCC put it well within reach.
benton.org/headlines/everyone-needs-broadband-now-more-low-income-americans-will-be-able-afford-it | White House, The
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HOUSE GOP WANTS TO CAP INTERNET SUBSIDY BUDGET
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Mario Trujillo]
House Commerce Committee Republican Reps are vowing to take up a bill that would set a budget cap on a program aimed at offering phone and Internet subsidies to the poor. They made the announcement shortly after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to overhaul and expand the program known as Lifeline in a dramatic meeting March 31. As it stands, the FCC proposal includes a $2.25 billion “budget mechanism.” If spending nears that level, the FCC will have to decide whether to increase the funding. But without a cap, Republican Reps said, that total could easily be exceeded even if the agency does nothing. The GOP bill sponsored by Rep Austin Scott (R-GA) would cap the program at $1.5 billion. It is sure to receive strong pushback from Democratic Reps, however, and has no real chance of enactment under President Barack Obama. In fact, House Democratic Reps helped convince FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to break her deal with FCC Republican Commissioners a day earlier. A group of nine House Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee sent the FCC a late letter to “express concern” about a cap. “Demand is expected to increase as the program transitions to include broadband service, and any cap would threaten the goals and purpose of Lifeline,” they warned. “We strongly support the commission’s effort to modernize and expand Lifeline, but by establishing an artificial cap on funding from the outset, many low-income consumers could find themselves without any mechanism to bridge the digital divide,” according to the letter.
benton.org/headlines/house-gop-wants-cap-internet-subsidy-budget | Hill, The
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WHAT ARE NEXT STEPS FOR CONGRESS ON NET NEUTRALITY?
[SOURCE: American Enterprise Institute, AUTHOR: Mark Jamison]
[Commentary] Indications are that Congress is likely to take up network neutrality once the court rules on whether the Federal Communications Commission overstepped in its 2015 Open Internet Order. The intent at least on the Senate side is to have strong net neutrality provisions. The House seems less likely to take that position. Are there ways to have our cake and eat it too? Can we have dynamic industries and regulation? Yes, as long as the regulatory framework is consistent with a constantly improving tech ecosystem of networks, edge providers, customers, and others yet to be named. Congress has at least three options that would promote a robust and open Internet, allow innovation to flourish, and protect vulnerable customers and fledgling edge providers. These approaches apply to interconnection between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and between ISPs and edge providers.
First best: A multistakeholder process -- The preferred option is to direct the FCC to engage in a multistakeholder process to establish how ISPs and edge providers interact. The leading thinker on this approach is TechPolicyDaily.com’s own Roslyn Layton. According to her research, of the 50 countries that have adopted net neutrality policies, those which avoid regulatory rules and instead embrace a multistakeholder approach have more edge provider innovation on average than do the other nations.
Second best: Adopt rules provided there is actual evidence of monopoly -- The next best option is for Congress to authorize the FCC to adopt net neutrality rules, but only upon showing that the ISP or edge provider in question possesses and is abusing a monopoly position. There are two key provisions to this approach, and a caveat.
Third best: Rules adopted and enforced unless there is evidence they are not needed -- If Congress is concerned that net neutrality rules are needed now, it can adopt what I consider a third-best option, namely authorizing the FCC to adopt net neutrality rules, but with a requirement that the FCC forebear from enforcing rules where a regulatory impact analysis – styled after the requirements just described – shows that monopoly is absent or that monopoly power is not being exercised even if it exists.
[Mark Jamison is the Gunter Professor of the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida]
benton.org/headlines/what-are-next-steps-congress-net-neutrality | American Enterprise Institute
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GOVERNMENT & COMMUNICATIONS

WHITE HOUSE TECH UPGRADE
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Michael Shear]
One of President Barack Obama’s legacies will be the office information technology upgrade that his staff has finally begun. Part of the problem? Responsibility for White House technology has long been divvied up between four agencies, each with their own chief information officer: the National Security Council, the Executive Office of the President, the Secret Service and the White House Communications Agency. That led to a series of Band-Aid solutions over the years, as one agency or another has attempted piecemeal upgrades to White House gear.
benton.org/headlines/technology-upgrades-get-white-house-out-20th-century | New York Times
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STORIES FROM ABROAD

EGYPT BLOCKED FACEBOOK INTERNET SERVICE OVER SUVEILLANCE
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Yasmeen Abutaleb, Joseph Menn]
Egypt blocked Facebook Free Basics Internet service at the end of 2015 after the US company refused to give the Egyptian government the ability to spy on users, apparently. Free Basics, launched in Egypt in October, is aimed at low-income customers, allowing anyone with a cheap computer or smartphone to create a Facebook account and access a limited set of Internet services at no charge. The Egyptian government suspended the service on Dec 30 and said at the time that the mobile carrier Etisalat had only been granted a temporary permit to offer the service for two months. Two sources with direct knowledge of discussions between Facebook and the Egyptian government said Free Basics was blocked because the company would not allow the government to circumvent the service's security to conduct surveillance. They declined to say exactly what type of access the government had demanded or what practices it wanted Facebook to change.
benton.org/headlines/egypt-blocked-facebook-internet-service-over-surveillance | Reuters
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