1. Monthly archive
  2. January 2019

January 2019

Commissioner Carr Praises Court Decision Not to Block 5G Order

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr praised a US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit decision not to stay the FCC's Sept 2018 5G order. That was the order, motormanned by Commissioner Carr, that took various steps to speed wireless infrastructure deployment. “Yesterday’s court decision is more good news for U.S. leadership on 5G," said Commissioner Carr, issuing his own press release since staffers have been furloughed during the shutdown.

It’s time to try something different on Internet privacy

Despite the failures of our current online privacy ecosystem, some lawmakers are considering doubling down on policies that do not work. But no matter how much control companies give us over our data, it will never work online. That’s because control and transparency place the burden on consumers to protect themselves and understand where their data is going. And they must do this for every one of the dozens (or more) online accounts they may have.

Attorney General Nominee William Barr Will Recuse Himself from AT&T-Time Warner Challenge

Attorney General nominee William Barr, a former board member of Time Warner, has agreed to recuse himself from the Justice Department's challenge to the AT&T-Time Warner merger. Currently, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit is considering DOJ's appeal of a district court decision that the merger did not violate antitrust laws. Barr made the promise to Seante Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

How the "big tech" colossus is splitting

For several years it has made sense, in some quarters, to lump together the tech giants — chiefly Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, sometimes also including Netflix or Microsoft. But talking about "big tech" is beginning to offer diminishing returns. Many of these companies banded together in 2012 for lobbying purposes as the Internet Association, and they have long shared a set of common regulatory interests in managing their platforms and services with little government oversight. But as privacy regulation of some kind looks more inevitable, their interests are more likely to diverge.

States Make the Right Moves

California, Washington and Indiana recently enacted legislation to help facilitate community broadband networks: 

Cooperatives and Rural Broadband

Underserved communities can provide broadband for themselves through nonprofit, cooperative entities. Many co-ops that were originally set up to provide phone service and distribute electricity now deliver broadband as well. Rural electric and telephone cooperatives are fiberizing rural America. Following are a few examples of the hundreds of successful cooperative projects. 

Communities Join Forces For Broadband

Regional efforts to develop broadband infrastructure are becoming more common.

Documenting the True—and High—Local Administrative Costs of Small Cell Siting

A hundred bucks. That’s what the Federal Communications Commission recently decided is adequate compensation to your locality for processing a small cell application. In many cases, it’s not going to be enough. And if your actual costs are indeed higher than $100, you will effectively be forced by the new FCC rules to subsidize the telecommunications industry—unless you can build a strong and reasonable case for why your actual, documented costs are higher and should be recovered by your community.

The digital divide in Indian Country

With the recent release of the American Community Survey’s five-year (2013–2017) rolling average data for small areas, new figures show that broadband access rates differ significantly among American Indian reservations but are, on average, low relative to national norms.The Census Bureau has shown that counties’ rates of broadband access are positively correlated with income. We have found the correlation between income and broadband access for reservations is very similar as to counties. This implies that the lower average levels of broadband access in reservations is likely attributable

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