June 2019

Survey Explores Broadband Impact on Local Economies, Telehealth, Education

Everyone who’s concerned about community broadband needs to contact your economic development agency, department, whoever spearheads your community’s economic development. I’m surveying these professionals about broadband’s impact on local economies. Community broadband is advancing in many places nationwide. But it’s also taking a beating in some areas. The only way we can fight back, capture opportunities, and win challenges is to start with reliable data from those in the trenches. This is insanely important!!

3rd Quarter 2019 USF Contribution Factor is 24.4 Percent

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Managing Director announced that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the third quarter of 2019 will be 0.244 or 24.4 percent. 

Senate Commerce Committee Oversight Hearing of the Federal Communications Commission

The Senate Commerce Committee held an oversight hearing of the Federal Communications Commission. Some highlights:

Facebook Worries Emails Could Show Zuckerberg Knew of Questionable Privacy Practices

Apparently, Facebook uncovered emails that appear to connect Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg to potentially problematic privacy practices at the company. Within the company, the unearthing of the emails in the process of responding to a continuing federal privacy investigation has raised concerns that they would be harmful to Facebook—at least from a public-relations standpoint—if they were to become public. The potential impact of the internal emails has been a factor in the tech giant’s desire to reach a speedy settlement of the investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.