Monday, November 30, 2020
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WaPo: What Biden needs to do to regulate the Internet both at home and worldwide
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Trump’s controversial FCC pick is getting a committee vote
Chairman Pai Names Six Members to USAC Board of Directors
NYC Holds Verizon Accountable to Connect Half a Million New York City Households to Broadband
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Several of Wyoming’s local fiber and cable-based broadband providers recently brought to my attention legitimate concerns that their high-speed broadband networks are likely to be overbuilt by competitors receiving CARES Act grants being distributed through the Wyoming Business Council’s (WBC) Connect Wyoming program. I have spent a good portion of my career at the FCC fighting against the wasteful subsidization of network builds where competitors are already providing service, which siphons funding away from projects that could otherwise help reach unserved areas and threatens the viability of existing providers’ private investments. I was, therefore, quite concerned to learn that Wyoming may be using scarce federal CARES Act dollars in this very manner and funding the duplication of broadband networks in communities where providers are already offering service. This type of inefficient spending is especially problematic when there are millions of Americans, and tens of thousands of citizens in your state alone, that do not have access to any broadband at all. As co-chair of the WBC, I believe you may be in the best position to respond to and address concerns regarding this matter. I respectfully request that the WBC immediately release coverage maps for awarded projects, enable existing providers to challenge any duplicative projects, and halt any funding for projects that will result in subsidized overbuilding.
Mayor de Blasio Holds Verizon Accoubtable to Connect Half a Million New York City Households to Broadband
New York City is ensuring that Verizon builds out its FiOS footprint to 500,000 additional households, making high-speed fiber broadband available to more New Yorkers. The agreement secured by Mayor de Blasio addresses disparities faced by low-income and New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) families across the city. Due to the corporation’s previous failure to connect many buildings, large portions of New York City neighborhoods are under an effective monopoly, with only one cable and broadband provider, risking lower speeds and higher costs. Under the settlement, Verizon is compelled to prioritize the least-connected Community Districts and ensure connectivity for every NYCHA residential building. The City began proceedings against Verizon due to the telecom’s failure to meet the terms of its cable franchise agreement, inked under the Bloomberg administration, to build out its Fios network. The terms of the settlement call for Verizon to report quarterly on their progress, and the City will make public the list of newly eligible households that were previously ineligible for FiOS or broadband service. The lawsuit and its settlement highlight the City’s commitment to holding franchisees accountable to meet their commitments to the public. The City’s franchise team will be closely monitoring Verizon’s performance for any slippage from the terms of this agreement and is prepared to ensure serious consequences for failure to perform. The settlement is subject to approval from the NYC Franchise and Review Commission and the Public Service Commission.
Flume's goal is to provide fast, affordable internet connections to at least 600,000 low-income residents in New York City, including to those in public housing. Flume was co-founded by Brandon Gibson and Prashanth Vijay. Flume is targeting all five New York City boroughs and also plans to deploy its broadband service in East Hartford, Connecticut in the spring of next year to provide fiber-based access to an additional 25,000 households. For public housing in the New York area, Flume Access' internet speed provides symmetrical speeds up of 200 Mbps. For non-public housing and the greater service area, Flume is looking at provisioning symmetrical speeds of 1-Gig. Flume, which is currently in the seed stage of its funding, plans to do its own fiber installs.
The president-elect is in a position to do for the Web, both worldwide and here at home, what his predecessor has not. There is ample room for regulating the online realm domestically, though doing so may first require cooperating with a divided Congress. Reinstalling some form of the net neutrality regulations rolled back by the current Federal Communications Commission promises to prove controversial; expanding broadband access to low-income and rural households, on the other hand, should appeal to legislators mid-pandemic regardless of party. Just as high on the agenda ought to be forging a federal privacy framework at long last: A stalled-out effort in both legislative chambers could benefit from a jolt of jump-starting executive leadership. And then there’s the matter of reforming Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields websites from lawsuits for hosting illegal content.
Open-access networks could revolutionize the US broadband industry for consumers and for the municipalities in which they operate. When utilized to its maximum capacity, a fiber network can provide the backbone to economic development and improved quality of life for residents and deliver a full array of smart-city applications that enable a city to become more efficient, environmentally friendly, and desirable to prospective residents and businesses. Many cities want fiber networks to support smart-city applications. But the cost of building a network to support only smart-city applications is seldom justified. Municipalities predominantly use technology to reduce costs – not capture additional revenue – and, as a result, creating viable business cases for them is immensely challenging. In contrast, by using an independently operated network, a city is able to use profits from one revenue stream to subsidize municipal usage on a large scale. This completely removes connectivity as a barrier to creating smart cities. Numerous smart-city applications are already available, and more will be added as technology evolves. From traffic monitoring to reduce congestion to monitoring storm drains to reduce flooding, there are applications for every need. SiFi Networks allows municipalities to access its networks to implement smart-city applications, enabling cities to become more efficient and increase the quality of life for residents.
[Ben Bawtree-Jobson is the CEO of SiFi Networks]
One message that is understood in all languages around the globe is that communications technology can improve people’s lives and grow our economies. Increasingly, the technology that people think can drive transformative change is 5G. Soon, these next-generation wireless networks will affect almost every aspect of our society and economy—from businesses to homes, hospitals to transportation networks, manufacturing to the power grid.
The law that enabled the rise of social media and other internet businesses is facing threats unlike anything in its 24-year history, with potentially significant consequences for websites that host user content. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was instrumental to the success of Silicon Valley tech giants such as Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google and YouTube by giving them broad immunity for the content they publish from users on their sites. There is a growing consensus in Washington and elsewhere that Section 230 needs an overhaul, even as liberals and conservatives disagree on the reasons why. Democrats say the immunity has allowed companies to ignore false and dangerous information spreading online, since the companies generally aren’t liable for harmful content. Republicans focus their ire on another aspect of Section 230, which says companies broadly aren’t liable for taking down content they deem objectionable. President Trump and others contend liberal-leaning tech companies have used that provision to block conservative views.
The Federal Communications Commission denied a petition for reconsideration of the FCC’s June 30, 2020 order designating ZTE as a company posing a national security threat to the integrity of communications networks or the communications supply chain. After reviewing the record, the FCC found no basis for reconsideration. As a result, the FCC’s $8.3 billion a year Universal Service Fund cannot be used to purchase, obtain, maintain, improve, modify, or otherwise support any equipment or services produced or provided by ZTE as well as its parents, affiliates, and subsidiaries.
Trump’s controversial FCC pick is getting a committee vote -- it could have big implications for Biden’s plans
Nathan Simington, President Donald Trump’s controversial choice to be on the Federal Communications Commission, will get a vote Dec 2 from the Senate Commerce Committee on whether to advance his nomination to the full Senate. If Simington advances through the committee vote and then passes through a full vote in the Senate, he could put the FCC into a crunch for President-elect Joe Biden. If Simington’s nomination is approved, and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai steps down from his post ahead of the nomination (which is traditional), it would leave the agency stuck with 4 commissioners, two from each party. If Republicans maintain control of the Senate after the runoff elections in Georgia, they would be able to hold up a Biden nomination to the agency, continuing to leave the agency in a partisan deadlock. The FCC is supposed to have five members, including the chairman which is chosen by the president. Three of the commissioners are supposed to be from the president’s party, with the other two the opposite party. That inability to go through any votes that would go down party lines would stall movement on a number of issues that tech advocates have hoped would come with a Biden-backed FCC, including restoring net neutrality—which has been down party lines in past FCC votes. However, there has been some speculation about whether Simington has the votes to proceed both in the Senate committee and the full Senate.
The Federal Communications Commission will soon shift to Democratic control, and speculation has already begun about who will assume the chairmanship under the Biden administration. Jessica Rosenworcel, the senior Democrat on the commission, is widely considered to be one of the leading candidates to succeed Ajit Pai in the powerful regulatory post. She has been vetted twice and would likely have a smooth path to confirmation, which would be a key consideration assuming the Senate remains in Republican hands. She also has the backing of Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who praised Rosenworcel’s work on net neutrality and on expanding broadband access to low-income students since she joined the commission in 2012.
Another possibility is Mignon Clyburn, who served on the commission from 2009-18. A former newspaper publisher, Clyburn is the daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), whose endorsement proved critical to Joe Biden’s win in the Democratic primary. Mignon Clyburn has been named to Biden’s transition team for the FCC. Thus far, Biden has staffed his administration with experienced Washington hands, rather than reaching for outside-the-box choices. That has led many to believe he would go with Rosenworcel or perhaps Geoffrey Starks, the other Democrat on the commission. But relationships are also important, and Biden could select someone other than a current commissioner to chair the regulatory body. Edward “Smitty” Smith, a partner at DLA Piper in Washington, is one such possibility.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai appointed six members to the Board of Directors of the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). The three-year term for these positions begins on January 1, 2021.
- Representative for incumbent local exchange carriers (non-Bell Operating Companies) with $40 million or less in annual revenues: Geoffrey A. Feiss, General Manager, Montana Telecommunications Association;
- Representative for competitive local exchange carriers: Joseph Gillan, Consultant, Gillan Associates;
- Representative for low-income consumers: Ellis Jacobs, Senior Attorney, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc.;
- Representative for interexchange carriers with annual operating revenues of $3 billion or less: Michael Skrivan, Vice President Regulatory, Consolidated Communications;
- Representative for schools that are eligible to receive discounts pursuant to section 54.501 of the Commission’s rules: Joan H. Wade, Ed.D., Executive Director, Association of Educational Service Agencies; and
- Representative for rural health care providers that are eligible to receive supported services pursuant to section 54.601 of the Commission’s rules: Katharine Hsu Wibberly, Ph.D., Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic Telehealth Resource Center.
The Covid-19 lockdowns were expected to push the resilience of broadband and mobile networks to the limit. With millions of people suddenly working from home, it was widely expected that telecoms companies would struggle to keep everyone connected, particularly in countries where full-fibre broadband levels are low and 5G upgrades remain a distant prospect. Yet networks mostly held firm as minor outages and service difficulties such as jerky Zoom calls proved surmountable for most workers, children and furloughed staff stuck at home. That was despite a boom in the amount of data traffic as gaming, streaming and video calls clogged the digital highways. Britain’s BT reported record amounts of traffic on its broadband network during the latest lockdown.
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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