Friday, October 19, 2018
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Dramatic slowdown in global growth of internet access
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Tennessee is spending $45 million to expand broadband internet. But is it enough?
Broadband/Internet/Telecom
Wireless
Ownership/Competition
Accessibility
Health
Security/Privacy
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Elections
Emergency Communications
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Broadband/Internet
The Web Foundation is working on an analysis of United Nations data that shows the growth of internet access around the world has slowed dramatically. The striking trend shows the rate at which the world is getting online has fallen sharply since 2015, with women and the rural poor substantially excluded from education, business, and other opportunities the internet can provide. The data shows that growth in global internet access dropped from 19% in 2007 to less than 6% in 2017.
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and US Chamber of Commerce are standing strongly behind the Federal Communications Commission's deregulation of internet access in the 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order. In an amicus (friend of the court) brief, NAM and the chamber, who are friends of the FCC in this case, said that with internet-driven tech at "the heart" of modern manufacturing the FCC's decision to roll back those "onerous" rules was a victory for competition. "The previous administration’s decision to regulate the internet with a more than 70-year-old law designed to govern the use of rotary telephones only burdened manufacturers with uncertainty," said NAM senior VP and general counsel Linda Kelly. "We are confident the court will agree that the FCC acted within the law to end the Obama-era FCC’s heavy-handed approach that was neither appropriate nor necessary for the rapidly evolving, highly competitive broadband market.”
The American Cable Association, NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, USTelecom and CTIA filed suit Oct 18 in a federal district court in Vermont against a law and executive order that attempt to regulate internet access and restore net neutrality rules rolled back by the Federal Communications Commission. "As the FCC has repeatedly recognized, internet traffic flows freely between states, making it difficult or impossible for a provider to distinguish traffic moving within Vermont from traffic that crosses state borders. Both the Supremacy Clause and the dormant Commerce Clause protect broadband internet service providers (“ISPs”) from a patchwork of inconsistent regulations that are impossible for them to comply with as a practical matter. The Court should declare that the Executive Order and S. 289 are preempted and unconstitutional, and should permanently enjoin the Defendants from enforcing or giving effect to them," the groups wrote.
Broadband investment rebounded in 2017, as a series of positive consumer and innovation policies and a pro-growth regulatory approach helped reverse the industry’s previous spending pullback, according to new research released by USTelecom. USTelecom’s annual broadband capital expenditure report shows broadband provider capital expenditures grew to $76.3 billion in 2017, compared to $74.8 billion in 2016, an increase of $1.5 billion.
The 2017 increase comes after a two-year decline during which annual broadband capital expenditures fell a total of $3.2 billion, from $78.0 billion in 2014 to $74.8 billion in 2016. This spending dip began when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved to impose common carrier regulatory classification—commonly known as Title II—on broadband providers in 2015. Growth returned after a series of pro-investment steps taken by the FCC and Congress, including the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, the tech transition order and tax reform. While many factors are at play, the parallel shifts in policy and capex suggest that policy expectations played a role, warranting additional analysis.
Since my first day on the job, this agency has been focused on cutting through the regulatory red tape and increasing broadband investment, most importantly in rural America where the digital divide remains all too real. Today’s report confirms that the FCC’s policies to promote broadband deployment are working. After Internet service providers reduced new investments in 2015 and 2016 under the prior Administration’s regulatory approach, broadband investment increased in 2017 by $1.5 billion over the previous year. That’s real progress for American consumers, and another step toward better, faster, and cheaper broadband for all Americans.
Here's five important trends that are driving broadband access and digital inclusion in the United States. Underlying these trends is the drive to streamline regulation and create the incentive for broadband infrastructure investment.
- Digital Inclusion Planning. More governments and coalitions are creating city-wide, regional and state-wide broadband and digital inclusion planning programs. Many of these plans include dedicated staff, grant programs, and outcome-based measurement.
- Program Integration. Federal agencies understand that broadband access and digital literacy are important aspects of their missions, so they are including broadband and digital inclusion as “eligible expenses” in government programs and funding streams.
- Library Modernization. Libraries are community hubs for digital access, research, and content creation. Partnering with libraries and other community-based nonprofits is a great way for digital inclusion coalitions to reach people where they live and work.
- Performance Measurement. Part and parcel with the trend in structured planning, we also see a trend in measuring program performance through data collection and research. Measurement is important at the beginning of a program to assess gaps and needs and to size up assets and opportunities, but it is also essential as programs develop and change.
- Leveraging Assets. Digital inclusion relies on community investment in broadband infrastructure.
Tennessee's Broadband Accessibility Act funnels $45 million to communities across the state that don't have broadband access. In addition to passing the accessibility act in 2017, the Tennessee legislature in 2018 loosened regulations to allow internet providers to partner with public utilities. The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development received 66 applications in 2017 for the accessibility act's first round of funding. Each year for three years, $10 million in grants and $5 million in tax credits are available to private businesses. But telecommunication companies and rural Tennesseans are wondering if these measures are enough to close the rural and urban internet divide.
Spectrum/Wireless
Competitive Carriers Association report: AIRWAVES Act Could Yield at Least $1.5 Billion for Rural Wireless
The Competitive Carriers Association report “Assessment of the Economic Impact of The Airwaves Act" estimates that at least $1.5 billion could be raised for rural wireless in upcoming auctions of spectrum in the 24 GHz and 28 GHz bands, with additional funding to come from other auctions. The bill, sponsored by Sen Cory Gardner (R-CO), would require the Federal Communications Commission to complete auctions during each of the next three calendar years and to dedicate 10% of auction proceeds toward rural wireless. According to them, the issue is that the 28 GHz spectrum auction will not cover the entire U.S. but only 61.7% of the land mass and 23.7% of the population. The report authors estimate that Auction 101 is likely to generate between $41 million and $1.1 billion, with the most likely scenario being about $561 million. Auction 102 is expected to generate between $334 million and $27.5 billion, with $14 billion being the most likely scenario.
Ownership
How the FCC Suppressed Minority Broadcast Ownership, and How the FCC can Undo the Damage it Caused
Although newer technologies have captured the public’s imagination and purse, the Federal Communications Commission continues to regard free over-the-air broadcasting as the lifeline for millions of Americans. Certainly, the deliberate exclusion of people of color from ownership of the airwaves would be profoundly anti-competitive. What could be a more inefficient deployment of resources than having the entrepreneurial, managerial, and creative wealth of one-third of the country unable to find expression in the nation’s most influential industries? Such exclusion would also be morally wrong. Yet, it happened—on a grand scale—from 1932 to 1978. And, in some respects, it continues to this day. Thus, it is no accident that 88 years after the FCC’s birth, when 38.7% of Americans are persons of color, minority television ownership stands at 2.6% and is dropping fast, and minority radio ownership is stagnant at about 5%. Most of these stations are small, and consequently these holdings amount to less than 1% of industry asset value. Today, although people of color often appear in front of the camera and in front of the microphone, they are seldom found in positions of authority behind the camera and behind the microphone. People of color own none of the powerful large market network-affiliated television stations that dominate public discourse. This wasn't an accident.
Major changes are afoot in Hollywood, spurred by a pattern of rapid corporate media consolidation. While these mergers have received critical attention, the conversation has largely ignored something else big: the implications that this media maneuvering may have for diversity in media representation. More specifically, given Hollywood’s historically barbed relationship with onscreen diversity, it makes sense to ask: How might issues of diversity play out in—and affect—the merger review process, if at all? Could it actually make things worse?
The Federal Communications Commission is planning to reduce its reimbursement for hearing-impaired phone services that display a call’s text. The FCC could adopt a change in its reimbursement formula within 12 months, it said in the Trump administration’s fall regulatory agenda. The FCC reimburses telecom service providers for hearing- and speech-impaired telephone services. Agency officials, though, are worried that providers are marketing captioned phone services to people who could use cheaper methods, such as amplifying phones, in order to receive larger reimbursements.
I'd like to share what we are doing at the Federal Communications Commission to seize the opportunities of connected health.
On the subject of Rural Health Care Program funding for Funding Year 2018, I have some good news to share. Based on information provided by the Program administrator, we expect to fully fund out of the 2018 $581 million budget all eligible amounts for single-year 2018 funding requests from participating rural health care providers. In English: Every rural clinic or hospital seeking to lower its cost of service for this next year is eligible for full funding. We not only want to make sure our current universal service programs are working effectively and efficiently; this past Aug, the FCC launched an initiative to more fully realize the potential of digital health for low-income Americans. Specifically, we’re considering a program to promote the use of broadband-enabled telehealth services among low-income families and veterans. Our thinking is that patients would benefit from services delivered directly in their homes—such as sensor-based remote monitoring—instead of just brick-and-mortar health care facilities. We’re looking at a proposed $100 million budget for this so-called “Connected Care Pilot Program,” and we are seeking public input on how best to design it.
The $220 billion US advertising industry is facing an unprecedented wave of scandal and controversy, causing frustration amongst marketers, consumers, and lawmakers. The advertising industry is loosely regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, which has the jurisdiction to punish people or business for unfair trade practices, including deceptive advertising. The Federal Communications Commission also has the right to set rules around non-digital ads, like TV and radio. But regulators have struggled to enforce the broad "don't be deceptive" standard with digital marketing, and particularly automated marketing, which has dramatically increased the number of advertisers and ads that are active at any given moment. A lack of government oversight in digital has largely left firms that sell ad space to be accountable for their services. But recent examples show that those companies don't always have the capacity to manage their own technology, and it's hard for marketers to prove that an apparent mistake on the part of a platform is actually a violation of the law.
Twitter’s release of millions of tweets relating to foreign influence campaigns on the platform created a treasure trove of data for journalists and researchers to mine through. The information sheds light on the vast, yearslong campaign to sow discord and influence US politics, not only by Russia’s infamous Internet Research Agency but by accounts tied to Iran as well. New Knowledge Research Director Renee DiResta, whose group tracks disinformation and analyzed Twitter’s latest batch of data, pointed to an “evolution over time” by the IRA, which she said shifted from focusing on “more-domestically focused” matters in Russia to US politics in early 2015. But even after the shift, a majority of the IRA posts were targeted not directly at influencing American elections but rather at hot-button political topics, especially race. “The election was heating up but at the same time the overwhelming majority of the content … focused on race,” she said. And the evolution has continued. DiResta said foreign activity is “progressing to rely on local news” over “canonical” national outlets. She suggested this tactic could be because Americans hold greater trust in local outlets. DiResta said the findings pointed to a significant difference in how Russian trolls approached Twitter as opposed to Facebook. “Their Twitter operation was much more opportunistic than their Facebook operation,” she said. On Facebook, trolls sought to foster “in-group communities,” the researcher argued, while on Twitter, where there are no group pages, there was “a far broader collection of topics” that were more responsive to trends.
The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, another group that dug into the data, found that the IRA’s goals spanned from preventing Hillary Clinton’s victory to also “dividing polarized online communities in the US, unifying support for Russia’s international interests, and breaking down trust in US institutions.” One other consistent theme: suppressing the African-American vote. “A vote for Jill Stein is not a wasted vote” was a common refrain, according to DiResta. Other efforts focused on spreading disinformation about voting to minorities, she added.
Persistent cellular site outages after Hurricane Michael left many first responders and residents of Panama City (FL) unable to reach loved ones or those in need of help for several days, drawing the ire of some government officials. A week after the storm made landfall, nearly half—46 percent as of 11 am on Oct 17—of cell sites in Bay County (FL) which includes Panama City and Mexico Beach, remained out of service, according to the Federal Communications Commission. That is a slower recovery than many recent major storms other than Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017 and left many residents without cellphone service for months.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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