The Next Generation Connectivity Handbook
The Next Generation Network Connectivity Handbook: A Guide for Community Leaders Seeking Affordable, Abundant Bandwidth
December 2016
Op-ed
Op-ed
Public Interest Groups Slam AT&T’s Refusal to Serve Low-Income Americans Through Lifeline Program
Five diverse public interest groups spoke out about AT&T’s recent decision to opt out of the Lifeline broadband program and urged them to reconsider participating to offer the modest discount that Lifeline provides to low-income families struggling to afford broadband. Despite supporting the inclusion of broadband within the modernized Lifeline program, AT&T has officially filed for forbearance from the Lifeline broadband Internet access service requirements. This decision would confine their extension of Lifeline broadband to only very limited regions of its service territory.
“Benton is extremely disappointed with AT&T’s decision and the impact it will have on home broadband adoption for the most vulnerable families in the US,” said Amina Fazlullah, Director of Policy at Benton Foundation: “Teamed with FCC Lifeline program subsidies, AT&T could have been a leader in providing affordable broadband service for qualified, low-income families. We could have seen an incredible rise in broadband adoption by addressing the number one barrier to subscriptions: cost. This is an unfortunate failure to take advantage of a meaningful public-private partnership. We hope AT&T will reconsider its decision.”
Maybe the Internet Isn’t a Fantastic Tool for Democracy After All
The question we face now is: What happens when the industry destroyed is professional politics, the institutions leveled are the same few that prop up liberal democracy, and the values the internet disseminates are racism, nationalism, and demagoguery? Powerful undemocratic states like China and Russia have for a while now put the internet to use to mislead the public, create the illusion of mass support, and either render opposition invisible or expose it to targeting.
The paid bureaucrats in the Communist Party’s “50-cent army” flood debates on Chinese social media and message boards with nationalist propaganda. Russia’s armies of trolls smear critics, spread propaganda, and sow paranoia — both nationally and abroad, as when a cache of leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee drowned real news in innuendo and conspiracy. The tech industry has disrupted the public sphere and has shown neither the interest nor the ability to reconstruct it. No matter what Facebook might believe, there is no turnkey algorithmic solution that will ensure a perfect civic network. It will always be possible for people who take advantage of networks’ “dumb” nature — their inability to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate traffic — to flood them with junk.
Trump Team Talks Up Sen Heitkamp as Agriculture Secretary Speculation Grows
The president-elect is scheduled to huddle with Sen Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), a member of the Senate Broadband Caucus and a "clean coal" technology advocate, as part of Dec 2's round of transition meetings. There is speculation that Sen Heitkamp could lead the Agriculture Department.
While in Congress, Sen Heitkamp has been a proponent for rural broadband, promoting infrastructure to support high-speed Internet connections on North Dakota's Indian reservations and small towns across the state. In October, she was one of five senators who urged the Federal Communications Commission to consider how its business data services rules could deter investment from emerging providers, especially in rural areas. It's unclear whether the Heitkamp meeting pertains to a potential position in the administration, though news of the expected sit-down fueled rumors that she could be under consideration for a role at either the Energy or Interior departments or at the USDA.
5G technologies will power a greener future for cities
Once launched, fifth generation (5G) wireless technologies promise to connect billions of devices together in the Internet of the things. 5G combines wireless technologies like 4G and Wi-Fi with new computing methods such as network functions virtualization and software defined networking to dramatically speed up communications in large networks of digital devices.
In a new paper, Darrell West outlines the ways in which cities can apply these technologies to use scarce natural resources more efficiently. Water availability, air quality, and energy efficiency can each be improved by a network of sensors and computers analyzing real-time data. Reducing waste with 5G technologies will reap benefits from cost savings to better public health.
Nashville fights Comcast lawsuit over rules that help Google Fiber
The Nashville (TN) metro government wants a court to throw out a Comcast lawsuit that seeks to overturn rules designed to speed up deployment of Google Fiber. Nashville filed a motion to dismiss Comcast's lawsuit in US District Court in Tennessee on Nov 30, saying that Comcast incorrectly claimed Nashville's rules are preempted by state and federal law. The case is about Nashville's "One Touch Make Ready" ordinance that gives Internet service providers faster access to utility poles. One Touch Make Ready (also known as "Climb Once") lets new competitors move existing ISPs' wires in order to make room for new pole attachments, instead of having to wait for the incumbent ISPs to send work crews to move their own wires. The metro government passed the rules to help Google Fiber install wires faster, but both AT&T and Comcast are seeking to invalidate the ordinance.
NAB Seeks Quadrennial Ownership 'Relief' From FCC
With a new deregulatory Republican majority preparing to take the reins at the Federal Communications Commission under a President Donald Trump, the National Association of Broadcasters has petitioned the FCC to rethink its quadrennial media ownership review, which a divided FCC approved in August.
“After seven years of evaluating the rapidly changing media marketplace, the Federal Communications Commission recently adopted an order that remarkably retained—and in some cases made more stringent—its long-standing broadcast ownership rules,” NAB said in the petition. “Because these rules are divorced from current competitive realities, are based on faulty premises or misunderstandings of the law, lack evidentiary support and prevent local broadcasters from competing and serving their local communities effectively, the National Association of Broadcasters urges the Commission to reconsider major aspects of its Order."
Internet Archive Successfully Fends Off Secret FBI Order
Ten years ago, the FBI sent Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, a now-infamous type of subpoena known as a National Security Letter, demanding the name, address and activity record of a registered Internet Archive user. The letter came with an everlasting gag order, barring Kahle from discussing the order with anyone but his attorney — not even his wife could know. But Kahle did eventually talk about it, calling the order “horrendous,” after challenging its constitutionality in a joint legal effort with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union. As a result of their fight, the FBI folded, rescinding the NSL and unsealing associated court records rather than risk a ruling that their surveillance orders were illegal.
Now, Kahle and the archive are notching another victory, one that underlines the progress their original fight helped set in motion. The archive, a nonprofit online library, has disclosed that it received another NSL in August, its first since the one it received and fought in 2007. Once again it pushed back, but this time events unfolded differently: The archive was able to challenge the NSL and gag order directly in a letter to the FBI, rather than through a secretive lawsuit. In November, the bureau again backed down and, without a protracted battle, has now allowed the archive to publish the NSL in redacted form.