1. Monthly archive
  2. July 2020

July 2020

Sen Gardner Introduces Bill to Immediately Fund Rural Broadband Deployment

Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) introduced legislation to immediately fund broadband deployment in unserved and rural areas. The Developing Economic Prosperity and Linking Our Youth through (DEPLOY) Broadband Act will appropriate $6.5 billion to the Federal Communications Commission for broadband buildout in unserved areas. It also permanently establishes a minimum 10 percent rural dividend for future spectrum auctions and ensures that funding cannot be combined with any other funds at the FCC.

Chairman Pai's Response to Senators Regarding the Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship

On June 9, Sens Marco Rubio (R-FL), Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, requesting the agency take a fresh look at Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and clearly define the criteria for which companies can receive protections under the statute. Social media companies have become involved in a range of editorial and promotional activity; like publishers, they monetize, edit, and otherwise editorialize user content.

AT&T’s losses mount

AT&T lost broadband customers in the second quarter of 2020, dropping from 14.05 million to 13.94 million. Fiber customers rose from 4.1 million to 4.32 million during the three-month period, but losses in the DSL category brought the total number of customers down.

Verizon adds customers, but revenue dips amid slower device sales

Verizon saw a net gain of 10,000 consumer Fios broadband subscribers in the second quarter, even though it had to suspend many in-home installations because of pandemic restrictions. The Keep Americans Connected Pledge — waiving late fees and promising not to cut off service for customers who couldn’t pay during the pandemic —

New Broadband Maps Are Coming. They’ll Be Useless Unless We Also Invest in Research and Analytical Capacity.

New, more accurate and detailed broadband maps are on their way. The telecom policy crowd fervently hopes the data upgrade will help us better address digital divides and other issues. But maps and data alone won’t solve anything. Skill, expertise and time will all be required to study and use the new maps, and the resources required grow as the datasets become larger and more complex.

Broadband Costs Too Much

The Open Technology Institute's latest study of the price of internet service, The Cost of Connectivity 2020, finds substantial evidence of an affordability crisis in the United States. From service plans that meet the current Federal Communications Commission definition for broadband at 25/3 Mbps to bigger, bolder standards, U.S. consumers pay more for monthly internet prices on average than European consumers based on advertised metrics. And, perhaps just as importantly, U.S.

© 1994-2026 Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. All Rights Reserved.