On April 3, 2020, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to ensure that as the FCC begins the mapping efforts required under the Broadband DATA Act (which President Donald Trump signed on March 23, 2020), that the FCC include community anchor institutions such as health care facilities, schools, and libraries.
On April 13, 2020, Rep Anthony Brindisi (D-NY) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajti Pai to update the Keep Americans Connected pledge to go beyond the initial 60 days and instead last through the duration of the public health emergency. Additionally, he asked Chairman Pai to expand the pledge to include a commitment to suspend all price increases for the duration of the public health emergency.
The existential question that every big tech platform from Twitter to Google to Facebook has to wrestle with is the same: How responsible should it act for the content that people post? The answer that Silicon Valley has come up with for decades is: Less is more. But now, as protests of police brutality continue across the country, many in the tech industry are questioning the wisdom of letting all flowers bloom online.
On April 23, 2020, the Federal Communications Commission proposed to adopt rules and a framework for establishing the 5G Fund for Rural America. To account for the relative costs of serving areas that vary in terrain characteristics and potential business cases, the FCC proposed to apply an adjustment factor to make the most difficult areas to serve more attractive at auction in order to encourage more bidding for these areas. The adjustment factor also would be used to transition legacy high-cost support to 5G Fund support.
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