Daily Digest 1/18/2019 (Becoming Broadband Ready)

Benton Foundation

Friday, January 18, 2019

Headlines Daily Digest

Headlines will return TUESDAY, Jan 22. Enjoy the holiday weekend.


Don't Miss:

Becoming Broadband Ready: A Toolkit for Communities

Smartphone-only internet users vs. the Lifeline program

Next week's events

Table of Contents

Broadband

Becoming Broadband Ready: A Toolkit for Communities  |  Read below  |  Research  |  Next Century Cities
Smartphone-only internet users vs. the Lifeline program  |  Read below  |  Claire Dickey  |  Analysis  |  AllConnect
Appeals Court rejects FCC request to delay net neutrality case  |  Hill, The
Loveland (CO) will officially bond about $97 million for broadband  |  Reporter-Herald
Permissionless: What It Means, How It Happened, Will It Last  |  Bruce Mehlman

Wireless

Verizon blames school text provider in dispute over “spam” fee  |  Read below  |  Jon Brodkin  |  Ars Technica, Verizon

Ownership

Open Markets Calls on House Judiciary Committee to Take On Monopoly Power  |  Open Markets Institute
How AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile Are Fighting for Dominance in the Over-the-Top Revolution  |  Wrap, The

Privacy/Security

The FBI ‘Can Neither Confirm nor Deny’ That It Monitors Your Social Media Posts; We're Suing for Answers  |  American Civil Liberties Union
US Weaponizes Its Criminal Courts in Fight Against China and Huawei  |  Wall Street Journal
Public Knowledge Opposes Rubio's Antiquated Privacy Bill Barring States from Protecting Consumers  |  Public Knowledge
That #10YearChallenge on social media: Harmless meme or data-harvesting scheme?  |  Vox

Content

Ebooks seem like ‘Netflix for libraries,’ but they’re a drain on budgets  |  Philadelphia Inquirer

Labor

Facebook engineering manager says in internal post she quit after being ‘harassed’ over views on diversity  |  USA Today

Journalism

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez: 'At what point is Fox News obligated to not lie?'  |  Hill, The
Juan Williams on Fox: Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter are 'running this government'  |  Hill, The

Elections

Trump's Ex-Lawyer Cohen Acknowledges Scheme To Rig Polls In Presidential Race  |  National Public Radio

Policymakers

President Trump Nominates Aditya Bamzai and Travis LeBlanc for Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board  |  White House

Stories From Abroad

Here Come the Internet Blackouts  |  New America
Oxford places ban on donations and research grants from Huawei  |  Guardian, The
India’s Plan to Curb Hate Speech Could Mean More Censorship  |  Wired

Company News

Netflix is finally sharing (some of) its audience numbers for its TV shows and movies. Some of them are huge.  |  Vox
Today's Top Stories

Broadband

Becoming Broadband Ready: A Toolkit for Communities

Research  |  Next Century Cities

A guide for communities that are seeking solutions to connect residents to broadband. The toolkit acts as a comprehensive first-stop resource for community leaders by outlining the most important considerations and action steps for communities beginning broadband expansion projects. These “building blocks” for a successful project are broken down into clear, concise sections that are presented in chronological order, with the most fundamental ingredients first and more nuanced considerations later. 

Smartphone-only internet users vs. the Lifeline program

Claire Dickey  |  Analysis  |  AllConnect

Allconnect partnered with YouGov to conduct a survey to see why people are making the switch to smartphone-only internet. According to our research, one of the most common reasons for using a smartphone instead of traditional internet service is cost. Our survey found that of the 11 percent of U.S. adults only using a smartphone to connect to the internet at home, 36 percent did so because traditional internet coverage was too expensive. A majority of our smartphone-only internet participants reported having both an income level under $40,000 and no college education.

Wireless

Verizon blames school text provider in dispute over “spam” fee

Jon Brodkin  |  Ars Technica, Verizon

After being criticized for charging a new fee that could kill a free texting service for teachers and students, Verizon is trying to deflect blame. Now Verizon is offering to reverse the fee for K-12 users of the free Remind service. "Verizon will not charge Remind fees as long as they don't begin charging K-12 schools, educators, parents, and students using its free text message service," Verizon said. "Despite this offer, made Tuesday, Remind has not changed its position that it will stop sending free texts to Verizon customers who use the service regarding school closures, classroom activities and other critical information." But limiting the offer to K-12 users means the fee would still be charged for preschools, day-care centers, and youth sports coaches who use the free Remind service. It's also not clear how K-12 users would verify their K-12 status in order to qualify for the free texting service.

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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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