Biden’s FCC must attend to cybersecurity, 5G development, and data-gathering issues that Trump’s FCC ignored
Three institutional and strategic problems that President Joe Biden’s Federal Communications Commission will have to resolve:
February 2021
Trump’s FCC failed on broadband access. Now, Biden’s FCC has to clean up the mess
For some time, many experts have been warning that the universal service funding system is in a death spiral, as the base on which the fees are assessed—generally a telecom company’s interstate and international end-user revenues—is shrinking. The new Federal Communications Commission is forced to consider a rising assessment on a shrinking revenue base to address an increasing demand, with Ajit Pai’s FCC having not done any of the analytic, political, or legal work necessary to make adjustments. Pai was willing to spend billions to address the needs of rural communities lacking broadband.
Windstream CEO “Skeptical” About Some RDOF Rural Broadband Funding Winners
Add Windstream CEO Tony Thomas to the list of those who have questioned whether some Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winners will be able to deploy the networks they committed to building at the level of funding they won. Without mentioning names, he said some “new entrants” that won RDOF funding believe they can “do something the established carriers can’t do using technology and economics that simply aren’t in the marketplace.”
Comcast is doubling the speed of its low-income internet plan, Internet Essentials
Comcast made several announcements that build on its longstanding commitment to advancing digital equity, closing the digital divide, and addressing both digital literacy and the homework gap.
You’re stuck at home. So, of course, cable and internet bills are rising (again)
Rates for many of the communications and content services we’ve all grown to rely on over the last year have risen recently or will rise in 2021, and there’s little you can do about it. Pay-TV service providers have watched their revenue decline as a growing number of Americans cut the cable cord and rely instead on internet-based streaming services. To compensate, and to keep shareholders happy, the industry keeps steadily increasing the cost of broadband internet access — and claiming that the higher fees are justified by ongoing investments in data networks.
Daily Digest 2/2/2021 (Punxsutawney Phil says more winter)
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Tue, 02/02/2021
FCC & Federal Partners Sign Spectrum Innovation Cooperation Agreement
FCC & Federal Partners Sign Spectrum Innovation Cooperation Agreement
The Federal Communications Commission has entered into an agreement with the National Science Foundation and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to support NSF’s Spectrum Innovation Initiative.
Russia is trying to set the rules for the Internet. The UN saw through the ruse.
Russia asked the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to have the group’s 193 member states “discuss the status of global governance system for … Internet domain names, addresses, and critical Internet infrastructure.” In a curt statement, the ITU said simply that it had “noted the contribution” of Russia.