Daily Digest 12/01/2020 (Open-Access, Middle-Mile Networks)

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
Table of Contents

Transition

Republicans' eleventh-hour telecom push  |  Read below  |  Leah Nylen  |  Politico
Chairman Pai Announces Intent to Depart FCC on Inauguration Day  |  Read below  |  FCC Chairman Ajit Pai  |  Press Release  |  Federal Communications Commission
Reactions to Chairman Pai Announcing His Intention to Depart FCC  |  Summary at Benton.org  |  Robbie McBeath  |  Benton Institute
House Chairs Seek Accounting of Political Appointees Burrowing into Career Positions at Dozens of Agencies  |  Read below  |  Letter  |  House Commerce Committee
Late complication tangles FTC’s decision on suing Facebook  |  Read below  |  Leah Nylen  |  Politico

Broadband/Internet

Open-Access, Middle-Mile Networks: Deployment and Competition  |  Read below  |  Jordan Arnold, Jonathan Sallet  |  Analysis  |  Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
Video Is Eating the World, Broadband Fails to Keep Up  |  Read below  |  Frank Catalano  |  EdSurge
Remote work can’t change everything until we fix this $80 billion problem  |  Read below  |  Jared Lindzon  |  Fast Company
Logix Settles for $64K to Resolve Network Outage Reporting Violations  |  Federal Communications Commission

Wireless/Spectrum

FCC Terminates Onboard Aircraft Proceeding  |  Read below  |  Marlene Dortch  |  Public Notice  |  Federal Communications Commission
Defense officials lukewarm on 5G spectrum-leasing plan pushed by the White House  |  Read below  |  Aaron Gregg  |  Washington Post
Dish feathers its 5G fiber nest with four agreements  |  Read below  |  Mike Robuck  |  Fierce
The Great 5G Race: Is China Really Beating the United States?  |  Read below  |  Doug Brake, Alexandra Bruer  |  Analysis  |  Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

Platforms

Facebook to Buy Kustomer, Startup Valued at $1 Billion  |  Read below  |  Cara Lombardo, Dana Cimilluca  |  Wall Street Journal
Facebook, Google to Face New Antitrust Suits in U.S.  |  Wall Street Journal
Facebook's blackout didn't dent political ad reach  |  Axios
The social media addiction bubble  |  Axios
Editorial: If Facebook wants to be ‘good for the world,’ here’s what it needs to do  |  Washington Post
Facebook's Nick Clegg: American leadership could save what is left of the global Internet  |  Washington Post

Security/Privacy

Supreme Court Justices express qualms about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act  |  Politico

Small Business/Diversity

Comcast RISE program lends a hand to more than 700 Black-owned SMBs  |  Read below  |  Mike Robuck  |  Fierce
Group Seeking Equality for Women in Tech Raises $11 Million  |  New York Times

Tech vs COVID

AA to Zoom, Substance Abuse Treatment Goes Online  |  New York Times
Zoom’s astronomical growth rate appears to be moderating  |  CNBC

Stories From Abroad

Britain to launch new watchdog next year to police tech giants  |  Associated Press
Apple fined €10M by Italian watchdog over iPhone waterproofing claims  |  Vox
Today's Top Stories

Transition

Republicans' eleventh-hour telecom push

Leah Nylen  |  Politico

President Donald Trump may exit the White House in January, but Republicans are rushing to put their imprint on tech policy in a variety of ways in his final weeks. These efforts could have lasting effects well into the Biden era, cementing certain legacy moves and curbing the incoming administration’s ability to execute its agenda. 

  1. The Senate GOP is seeking to install Trump’s Federal Communications Commission nominee Nathan Simington at the five-member agency to prevent Biden from filling the seat, a move that would also stall his ability to form an immediate Democratic majority.
  2. The Supreme Court (a third of which is now Trump appointed) agreed to hear the FCC’s appeal regarding its efforts to loosen media ownership restrictions on Jan. 19, just one day before Biden is sworn in. That allows the agency’s Republican lawyers to make their case, whereas after Inauguration Day Democrats will control the agency’s court strategies.
  3. While FCC Chair Ajit Pai is treading more carefully and is so far largely steering clear of controversial items (such as tackling the liability of social media companies, a key Trump ask), the agency chief released a memorandum providing guidance on how economics should be rolled into FCC proceedings, such as formally weighing the costs and benefits in rulemakings. One of Pai’s early pride points was creating an Office of Economics and Analytics — which some left-leaning critics initially feared could be used to undermine Obama-era regulation and something he likely hopes remains an agency fixture and part of his legacy.
  4. FCC staff are teeing up what could be more controversial sleeper actions, moving rapidly to collect public feedback on a petition that some agency critics like Free Press see as a boon to the Murdoch family. Their company Fox recently requested a permanent waiver of FCC restrictions so they can continue to own both The New York Post newspaper and TV stations in the New York City market (the agency granted a short extension to comment deadlines, which now conclude Dec. 8).
  5. Democrats want Republicans to pump the brakes on any controversial regulation and last week also sent letters to agency heads like Pai and FTC Chair Joe Simons asking about conversions of political appointees to career staff. This practice, known as “burrowing,” would keep certain personnel employed under Biden.

Chairman Pai Announces Intent to Depart FCC on Inauguration Day

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai  |  Press Release  |  Federal Communications Commission

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he intends to leave the Federal Communications Commission on January 20, 2021.

"It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve at the Federal Communications Commission, including as Chairman of the FCC over the past four years. I am grateful to President Trump for giving me the opportunity to lead the agency in 2017, to President Obama for appointing me as a Commissioner in 2012, and to Senate Majority Leader McConnell and the Senate for twice confirming me. To be the first Asian-American to chair the FCC has been a particular privilege. As I often say: only in America," said Chairman Pai. "I am proud of how productive this Commission has been, from commencing five spectrum auctions and two rural broadband reverse auctions in four years, to opening 1,245 megahertz of mid-band spectrum for unlicensed use, to adopting more than 25 orders through our Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative, to aggressively protecting our communications networks from national security threats at home and abroad, to designating 988 as the threedigit number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and much, much more. I’m also proud of the reforms we have instituted to make the agency more accountable to the American people. In particular, for the first time ever, we’ve made public drafts of the proposals and orders slated for a vote three weeks before the agency’s monthly meetings, making this the most transparent FCC in history."

FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said, "Congratulations to my friend and colleague, Ajit Pai, for his distinguished run as FCC Chairman. His Commission ushered in many policy advancements and made strides updating communications regulations, from restoring the Commission’s successful light-touch regulatory framework for Internet service providers to modernizing media rules, opening up more spectrum bands for commercial use, and expanding broadband access to unserved Americans. I wish him all the best in the next stage of his career and thank him for his great service to our nation."

"While we did not always agree on policy matters, I always valued our shared commitment to public service. Serving the American people is a tremendous honor and I wish him the best in the future," said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said, "Chairman Pai and I may disagree on many policy issues, but we are in full agreement about two things: the outstanding quality of the FCC’s staff and the tremendous abilities of Patrick Mahomes. I wish Ajit the best of luck on the road ahead."

“I want to congratulate and thank my friend Ajit for his courageous and principled service to the country. He will leave behind an unapparelled record of accomplishments—one that would not even fit in his oversized coffee mug," said FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. "Ajit did far more than simply mark time during his run as Chairman. He took on the tough policy fights and made the right calls for the American people. He strengthened the country’s national security by protecting our communications networks from bad actors that would do us harm. And he took critical steps in the days following COVID-19 to ensure that Americans could stay connected during the pandemic—whether for distance learning, working remotely, or telehealth."

House Chairs Seek Accounting of Political Appointees Burrowing into Career Positions at Dozens of Agencies

Letter  |  House Commerce Committee

House Committee Chairs sent a letter to 61 federal agencies requesting information on conversions of political appointees to civil service positions during the Trump Administration. Federal law requires that personnel actions are carried out in a way that the “selection and advancement” of employees in the civil service are “determined solely on the basis of relative ability, knowledge, and skills, after fair and open competition,” rather than on the basis of “partisan political purposes.” In accordance with civil service protections, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) requires all agencies to seek its “approval prior to appointing any current or former political appointee to a permanent position ... in the civil service.”  Following such requests, OPM reviews proposed selections to determine whether conversions are appropriate.

Late complication tangles FTC’s decision on suing Facebook

Leah Nylen  |  Politico

A looming vacancy on the Federal Trade Commission has created a dilemma for the agency as it decides how to pursue its expected antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, contributing to a delay in the launch of the case. While the five commissioners had been expected to file the suit by the end of November 2020, the agency’s commissioners are now grappling with the prospect that Chairman Joseph Simons’ likely departure before the next administration could lead to 2-2 splits in future votes. That’s important because Chairman Simons favors pursuing the suit against Facebook in the FTC’s in-house court, rather than in a standard federal court. An in-house case would give the commission more control over the process, a better chance of winning, and an opportunity to write an opinion that could change legal doctrines affecting future antitrust cases. But an in-house suit would also require the commission to vote on the case’s final resolution, long after Simons’ likely departure. And with no guarantee that President-elect Joe Biden could quickly fill the vacancy, the FTC could find itself in a deadlock — possibly to Facebook’s advantage.

Broadband/Internet

Open-Access, Middle-Mile Networks: Deployment and Competition

Jordan Arnold, Jonathan Sallet  |  Analysis  |  Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Residential and small-business customers have too few options for fixed, robust broadband service, what we refer to as “High-Performance Broadband.” Solving our deployment and competition problems requires the construction of new broadband networks. In other words, we need more competition, and we need more broadband deployment. Our new policy brief concentrates on one solution—the construction of open-access, middle-mile networks. “Open-access” means the network permits any broadband provider to connect to the network on nondiscriminatory terms and conditions. “Middle-mile” networks reach from national and major regional internet backbones to a local connection site. Thus, middle-mile networks bring data to and from an internet backbone to a connection point in a city or town where, in turn, traffic is handed off to the “last mile” network that connects to, say, a home. The fundamental economic principle is simple: Open-access, middle-mile networks can provide the savings that spur last-mile providers to build further and faster to reach residences. In this way, an open-access, middle-mile model promotes private investment and competition in last-mile service by reducing capital expenditures required to build last-mile connections.

Video Is Eating the World, Broadband Fails to Keep Up

Frank Catalano  |  EdSurge

Connected Nation finds that 47 percent of US school districts—6,132, to be exact, representing about one-third of public K-12 students—meet the 1 Mbps/student standard. Still, that means about two-thirds of students lack what Connected Nation calls “scalable broadband” in schools. The broadband gap isn’t only a problem for remote learning. “Early childhood” videos on YouTube nearly all have advertising. And as video dominates online instruction, more educators need easy-to-use resources for video creation.

Remote work can’t change everything until we fix this $80 billion problem

Jared Lindzon  |  Fast Company

Providing reliable, high-speed internet to remote parts of the U.S. has been a challenge for years. And the COVID-19 pandemic has created a renewed sense of urgency to solve it. Finally solving America’s digital divide will depend on either a technological innovation or governmental intervention. Now there is hope that at least one of those things could be just around the corner. In January 2017—the day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as president—Tom Wheeler, then the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, published a report that found it would cost $80 billion to provide universal broadband access to all Americans. The plan has received renewed focus in recent months as a result of the pandemic, but only from one side of the aisle. “Congressman Jim Clyburn [D-SC] has proposed it twice, and it’s passed the House twice as part of the COVID [relief] bill—a $100 billion package—and it’s died twice in the Senate,” says Wheeler, now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Wheeler is hopeful that a change in US leadership can help such a bill become law. Even once the Biden era begins, however, it would likely still have to pass through a Republican-controlled Senate.

Spectrum/Wireless

FCC Terminates Onboard Aircraft Proceeding

Marlene Dortch  |  Public Notice  |  Federal Communications Commission

On December 12, 2013, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing to revise its rules governing mobile communications services aboard airborne aircraft, and to permit inflight voice and/or data services via mobile wireless frequencies subject to certain conditions. Based on the record in response to the FCC’s proposals, the FCC declines to pursue, and hereby closes, this rulemaking proceeding. The record is insufficient to determine any reasonable solution that would strike an appropriate balance of competing interests. There is strong opposition to the FCC’s proposals from many commenters in this proceeding, including the nation’s airline pilots and flight attendants, who argue that it “fail[s] to address significant safety and national security concerns.”

Defense officials lukewarm on 5G spectrum-leasing plan pushed by the White House

Aaron Gregg  |  Washington Post

The White House has pushed the Pentagon to set up a controversial spectrum-leasing plan matching one being proposed by a politically connected company called Rivada Networks, which wants the lucrative job of using that spectrum to create a nationwide 5G network. Rivada proposing that it create a 5G network and rent out that spectrum to private companies such as Netflix, Facebook or Tesla. Some of the revenue would be sent back to the federal government. If the arrangement moved forward, a formal procurement process would determine what sort of fees Rivada could collect. Craig Moffett, a leading telecommunications analyst with the firm MoffettNathanson, said the spectrum in question is worth between $50 billion and $75 billion. But the military has not embraced the proposal, even though it was pushed directly by White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. 

Dish feathers its 5G fiber nest with four agreements

Mike Robuck  |  Fierce

Dish Network announced fiber agreements with Everstream, Segra, Uniti and Zayo. Those four fiber partnerships will provide fronthaul and backhaul support for Dish's 5G network to sites covering approximately 60 million US citizens. Dish expects to have some small preliminary 5G markets live in the first quarter of 2021 before having its first major 5G market deployment by the third quarter. The agreements with the four fiber companies will give Dish access to fiber coast-to-coast to connect to markets with its cloud-native, Open RAN based 5G network.

The Great 5G Race: Is China Really Beating the United States?

Doug Brake, Alexandra Bruer  |  Analysis  |  Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

5G is expected to provide the connective tissue for many emerging technologies critical to productivity, innovation, and national competitiveness. Some commentators have panicked over the so-called “race” for 5G, pointing in fear at China’s hundreds of thousands of new base stations, and projections of hundreds of millions of 5G subscribers this year alone. But if we are going to base policy decisions on this race (and it is questionable that we should), understanding how infrastructure and subscription numbers are actually counted matters. A closer look reveals that China’s wireless infrastructure and subscriber numbers are not as impressive as they may first appear: By counting anyone on a 5G plan—even if they only have a 4G device connecting to 4G infrastructure—as a 5G subscriber, and measuring individual base stations instead of cell sites, China’s 5G stats can paint a misleading picture. This misleading picture leads to the interpretation that the sky is falling.

Platforms

Facebook to Buy Kustomer, Startup Valued at $1 Billion

Cara Lombardo, Dana Cimilluca  |  Wall Street Journal

Facebook said it would buy Kustomer, a startup that specializes in customer-service platforms and chatbots, part of an effort by the social-media giant to help companies use its platforms to do business. Though terms weren’t disclosed, people familiar with the matter said it would value New York-based Kustomer at a little over $1 billion. Closely held Kustomer, whose technology takes conversations from different channels and puts them on a single screen, was valued at $710 million in a private funding round roughly a year ago, according to PitchBook. Increasingly, customers are communicating with companies by messaging instead of calling. Facebook said more than 175 million people reach out every day to businesses using its WhatsApp messaging service.

Small Business

Comcast RISE program lends a hand to more than 700 Black-owned SMBs

Mike Robuck  |  Fierce

Comcast's RISE program is providing more than 700 Black-owned businesses support including technology upgrades from Comcast Business. Awards in the program can also include consulting, media, and creative production services from Effectv, which is the advertising division of Comcast Cable. The first phase of Comcast RISE -- which stands for “representation, investment, strength and empowerment” -- was focused on U.S. Black-owned, small businesses. The Comcast RISE recipients in 285 cities in 29 states included a diverse roster of small business from restaurants and salons, to professional services and retail shops. Comcast RISE is a multi-year, multi-faceted initiative launched in October to help strengthen small businesses hard hit by COVID-19. As part of the next step, Comcast RISE eligibility has been opened up to include Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)-owned small businesses. 

Submit a Story

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.


© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2020. Redistribution of this email publication — both internally and externally — is encouraged if it includes this message. For subscribe/unsubscribe info email: headlines AT benton DOT org


Kevin Taglang

Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
727 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL 60202
847-328-3049
headlines AT benton DOT org

Share this edition:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society All Rights Reserved © 2019