The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to consider the nominations of Gigi Sohn to be a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission and Alan Davidson to head the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Sohn has a history of advocating for open and affordable communications networks. She is a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy and a Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Between 2003 and 2016, Sohn served as a counselor to former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Davidson is currently a senior advisor at the Mozilla Foundation, a global nonprofit that promotes openness on the internet. He served in the Obama administration as the first director of Digital Economy at the Department of Commerce. And he started Google’s public policy office in Washington (DC) in 2005, leading government relations there until 2012. [much more at the URL below]

Sens Roger Wicker (R-MS) and John Thune (R-SD) introduced the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Reauthorization and Reform Act (S.3288). The NTIA Reauthorization and Reform Act would:

• Reauthorize NTIA for two years at $52,831,000;
• Promote the head of NTIA from Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to Under Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information;
• Clarify NTIA’s role coordinating executive branch views on matters before the Federal Communications Commission;
• Require NTIA to coordinate with other agencies to promote and share information about workforce-development programs tailored to the telecom industry, which will help address its workforce shortage;
• Require NTIA and the FCC to update their memorandum of understanding on spectrum management (S.1472); and
• Improve the process for selecting the United States head of delegation and ambassador to the quadrennial World Radiocommunication Conference of the International Telecommunication Union.

This Task Force seeks to address the digital divide with recommendations that will advise the federal government on ways it can improve access, specifically on rural, agricultural lands. Broadband is the foundational element for all other issues. The recommendations fall largely within five primary categories with some additional key considerations. The five main priorities that the Task Force recommends are to:

1. Improve federal broadband maps and consistently validate user experiences;
2. Increase incentives and clarify that precision agriculture infrastructure are eligible expenses for federal broadband programs to increase adoption and build out a robust infrastructure;
3. Enhance the high-speed standards to meet the technology needs in agriculture;
4. Improve collaboration between federal agencies and remove regulatory impediments; and
5. Increase digital access to education and training for individuals engaged in farming.

Additional consideration should also be given to cyber security concerns and interoperability standards.

In the past few weeks, the Biden Administration has finally moved forward with nominations to the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. As the agencies move forward, fully staffed at last, we hope they will both recognize the role they can play in promoting net neutrality – meaning, in preventing ISPs from taking advantage of their effective gatekeeping roles to favor some services over others. Most people think of net neutrality as the province of the FCC, at least at the federal level. But that view loses sight of a prior problem: lack of competition in the ISP space. If we had a competitive broadband market, we might not need net neutrality rules, or at least not so many. But we don’t. If we had good net neutrality rules, the lack of competition might be less dangerous. Right now, in most places, we have neither. Instead, a few major companies—AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and the like—have enormous power over our access to essential services, power they can use, in turn, to manipulate our online experience promoting or prioritizing some services over others.

[Katharine Trendacosta is Associate Director of Policy and Activism and Corynne McSherry is Legal Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.]

Residents of St. Helena Parish (LA) have long driven on roads that seem to cave in as quickly as they’re fixed. However, local officials are lauding President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law as a chance for change. Broadband internet and roads — two resources that draw frequent complaints in this rural parish with deeply-rooted infrastructure troubles — are key areas the massive bill targets. It holds $65 billion for internet upgrades nationwide, and $110 billion to refurbish bridges and roads. Recovery from Hurricane Ida, which swept through the parish on August 30, further illuminated an already-pronounced lack of internet access as residents struggled to communicate in the aftermath of the storm. “The goal for us is to have fiber in every home. We’ve been talking about all these other funding sources to do that with,” said Roderick Matthews, the parish’s emergency director. “But I think with the infrastructure bill having passed, now it’s like, this will probably be a reality,” he added.

Platte County and Loup Power District have joined a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for broadband infrastructure development, investigating a public-private partnership to bring higher quality broadband to the rural area. The partnership is the brainchild of Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) Special Assistant to the Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Innovation Pat Pope. Since retiring from his longtime position as the president and CEO of NPPD in February 2020, Pope has been working on rural broadband development. NPPD is also on board with the MOU. Nebraska law prohibits public power districts from selling internet to end users, but they could -- theoretically -- allow telecommunications companies to lease use of fiber-optic infrastructure owned by the power districts.

To help recognize National Veterans and Military Families Month, Comcast announced it would install free WiFi in up to 100 veteran-focused facilities as part of its expanding Lift Zones program. Lift Zones provide free WiFi access outside the home in neighborhood community centers. They complement Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, which provides low-cost broadband to eligible consumers, including veterans, inside the home. Both efforts are part of Project UP, Comcast’s comprehensive, ten year, $1 billion commitment to help build a future of unlimited possibilities. Comcast has already installed nearly 25 Lift Zones inside veteran-serving organizations and it will continue over the next several months to work with members of the military community to identify additional locations.

A coalition of 18 center-right organizations sent a letter to the US Senate opposing the nomination of Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to serve as a Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission. "[Sohn's] views on Title II are emblematic of her longstanding tendency to promote policies that over-regulate the industries in the FCC’s jurisdiction," says the letter. "Sohn was one the chief architects of the short-lived Title II common-carriage rules that she claimed were necessary to enforce net neutrality. The rules drove down broadband investment,  increased prices, and decreased the adoption of home Internet service. Sohn has made it clear that she not only wants to reinstate these rules, but wants to take them further, including a ban on “zero-rating,” the free wireless data services that are particularly popular among low-income users."