September 2019

FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel Releases Podcast Episode Celebrating Inaugural Year of Broadband Conversations (Federal Communications Commission)

Submitted by Robbie McBeath on Thu, 09/19/2019 - 12:20

Broadband Mapping Markup in the House?

The House Commerce Committee's telecom subcommittee will soon move to mark up legislation to improve the government’s mapping of broadband data, which lawmakers have long complained is riddled with errors. And the panel will likely use the Broadband DATA Act, H.R. 4229, from Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), as the base. “I think the Loebsack bill will be the vehicle it runs through,” Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) said. “But I think we’re going to be taking bits and pieces of the other bills, too.”

The Right Way to Regulate Digital Platforms

Based on growing signs that platforms are tipping toward monopoly in key market functions, it is very likely that antitrust is not enough of a solution without targeted regulation that opens markets to new competition. Perhaps the most important change we need is competition-expanding regulations that address the problems antitrust cannot solve. A new expert regulator equipped by Congress with the tools to promote entry and expansion in these markets could actually expand competition to benefit consumers, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg dines with senators in DC (Reuters)

Submitted by benton on Thu, 09/19/2019 - 11:31

Too uneducated to understand the importance of home Internet?

In their recent Op-Ed in the Washington Post, “Cities, not rural areas, are the real Internet deserts,” authors Blair Levin and Larry Downes argue that the digital divide in cities persists because uneducated people do not understand the importance, or “relevance,” of the internet in their everyday lives.