FCC's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee https://www.benton.org/event/broadband-deployment-advisory-committee-0
Montana governor's order requires net neutrality for companies seeking state contracts
Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT) signed an executive order that will require all internet and data providers to adhere to net neutrality principles if they want to be awarded state contracts. "When the FCC repealed its net neutrality rules, it said consumers should choose. The state of Montana is one of the biggest consumers of internet services in our state. Today we're making our choice clear: We want net neutrality," said Gov Bullock. State, county and local governments have about $50 million in contracts with providers, including national companies such as Verizon, AT&T, Charter and CenturyLink, as well as local companies like Vision Net and Blackfoot Telecommunications. Gov Bullock said that by the start of the next fiscal year in July, the order —which took effect immediately — would affect contacts as the state renews them.
Success Of Net Neutrality Lawsuit Depends On Role Of Precedent In FCC Decisions
Following the controversial Federal Communications Commission’s decision to repeal network neutrality, a coalition of 22 attorneys general, including Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, filed a petition for review of the decision in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan 16. However, professor of information systems management at Carnegie Mellon University Rahul Telang said he believes that the FCC will be successful. Rahul explained that in the initial installation of net neutrality in 2015, the Obama administration FCC exercised their right to label the internet as a telecommunication service, which requires heavy regulation. The current FCC has done the same thing, instead labeling the internet as an information system, which is lightly regulated. “If you just look at the precedence, I think that FCC is likely to prevail,” Rahul said. “However, I guess if these attorney generals [sic] can convince [the judges] that net neutrality is really fundamental to the welfare of consumers and businesses, and that the FCC is undermining that, who knows?”
California is trying to bring back net neutrality, but the debate is complicated
California state lawmakers are angling for another fight with the Trump administration, this time to revive federal net neutrality rules that they say are crucial to a fair, open and free internet. CA Senate President Pro Tem Kevin De León (D-Los Angeles) has introduced legislation that would task a state agency with establishing new regulations, making it unlawful for broadband companies to block or limit access to internet services in California. Through his own bill, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is working with a coalition of lawmakers and tech advocates to craft new net neutrality rules of their own. Despite the dueling approaches, the two prominent Democrats have pledged to work together. Their proposals face heavy opposition from the telecom industry. And supporters say neither effort will be enough if the state does not also resuscitate federal rules to protect the privacy of internet customers. “We cannot allow the profits and political interests of internet service providers to outweigh the public interest in a free and open internet,” State Sen De León said. “If the Trump administration won’t protect consumers, the state of California will."
Conservative groups urge Congress to let net neutrality repeal stand
A coalition of conservative groups are urging Congress not to support a bill that would overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of network neutrality. Twenty-four free-market groups sent letters to lawmakers on Jan 22 calling on them to let the FCC’s decision stand, arguing that the rules stifled investment from broadband companies. “Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s 2015 decision to classify the Internet as a public utility under Title II was a solution in search of a problem, and disrupted the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) tried and true approach,” the letter reads. “This is not the way policy should be conducted, especially in an area that has such a substantial impact on the U.S. economy,” the groups added. The letter’s signatories include influential conservative groups like Americans for Tax Reform, FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity.
Partnership Deals Meaningful, Not Dominant Contributor to Netflix
Partnerships with pay TV operators, internet service providers, and other service providers are valuable contributors to Netflix’s subscriber growth and could play an even larger role as the company looks more deeply into agreements that bundle in the Netflix service. Netflix doesn’t break out what percentage of new customers come through its various partnerships with ISPs and pay TV providers: they are a “meaningful contributor, but not a dominant contributor in terms of being a major channel for us in terms of acquisition,” said David Wells, Netflix’s CFO. Netflix is a “multi-impression sale,” he added. “If somebody joins us through a partner, it isn’t necessarily because that partner did a specific promotion.” Spencer Wang, Netflix’s VP of investor relations/corporate development, stressed that, given the regional nature of cable TV and ISPs, any single partnership isn’t particularly material to Netflix’s global net additions. That said, the importance of partnerships is growing as Netflix gets “embedded” into more ISPs on more consumer electronics devices, Wells said.
Next Generation Broadband for Western North Carolina
By 2020, North Carolina can claim the title of the state with the most gigabit communities. Thanks to the work of the North Carolina Next Generation Network (NC NGN) project, itself an outgrowth of the Gig.U project, as well as other efforts, competitive gigabit networks are being built out by Google, AT&T, in a number of its major cities including Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem, as well as a number of its smaller communities, such as Carrboro, Pembroke and Holly Springs. But such deployments are not reaching everywhere in the state. Blair Levin, Executive Director of the National Broadband Plan, founder of Gig.U and a former municipal bond lawyer in North Carolina, returned to the state to speak to a group of local political and business leaders that is trying to duplicate the success of NC NGN for the western part of the state surrounding Asheville. In his speech, Levin explains why, despite significant evidence of the economic benefits of next generation networks, the equation for investment still makes it unlikely that market forces will deliver next generation networks to that part of the state. He also explains that despite the positive press federal support for rural broadband is receiving in DC, that support is unlikely to lead to action that will change that equation. He then lays out various models that hold promise for rural areas that wish to engage in self-help and key lessons learned from the communities that have been successful in accelerating the deployment of next-generation networks. [Blair Levin]
Broadband to the Neighborhood: Digital Divides in Detroit
The results of a study of Internet (non)use in three neighborhoods of Detroit, Michigan. The findings of this study identify key digital divides within these neighborhoods, and illuminate a common pattern of Internet use in the city – what might be called Detroit’s Internet ecosystem – that helps explain the relative lack of Internet access across its households. The findings provide the basis for a set of recommendations for narrowing the digital divide, including ways to address such issues as the affordability of the Internet.
To Bridge the Digital Divide or Not…That Is the Question as the FCC Cut Back Its Lifeline Program
Since Chairman Ajit Pai took over the leadership of the Federal Communications Commission, he has emphasized that one of his main goals has been to “close the digital divide and bring the benefits of the Internet age to all Americans.” So it comes as no surprise that the FCC has taken several measures recently to overhaul the Lifeline program under the tagline “Bridging the Digital Divide for Low-Income Consumers.” The November changes to the Lifeline Program were mainly cutbacks; reducing available subsidies, as well as limiting eligible participants and carriers. The question, however, is whether these changes will achieve these goals or if the cutbacks will be more detrimental to those once eligible subscribers who will no longer be able to benefit from the Lifeline program. The conflicting views of the Commissioners come as no surprise with Commissioners Michael O’Reilly and Brendan Carr supporting these measures, while Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn oppose. To express her disagreement Commissioner Clyburn stated that, “This proposal does nothing to make the lives of those who qualify better, and no amount of Orwellian doublespeak in the docket’s title will suggest otherwise. Make no mistake: this is will the Widen the Digital and Opportunity Divide item.”
See How The Telecom Industry Is Quietly Changing The Shape Of Our Cities
Comcast-NBC merger conditions expire, raising anti-competitive fears
Major conditions imposed by regulators as part of Comcast's merger with NBCUniversal expired Jan 20, renewing debate over AT&T's takeover of Time Warner that the Justice Department is trying to block. When approving the merger in 2011, the Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission required Comcast-NBCUniversal to abide by more than 150 conditions. As they phase out, some worry the media giant will engage in anti-competitive behavior that the conditions were designed to prevent — especially with the FCC's network neutrality rules also going away. With those constraints lifting, Comcast-NBCUniversal would, in theory, be able to:
- Charge online TV distributors different fees than it charges traditional pay-TV providers, allowing it to recoup some pricing leverage.
- Pull access to (or "black out") its networks from other cable and satellite providers, a common negotiating tactic. Under the conditions, Comcast had to take programming-carriage disputes to arbitration. (Axios' Sara Fischer has more here on the rise of disputes between TV networks and cable/satellite providers.)
- Have more say over Hulu, in which it owns a stake. Comcast had been barred from influencing its strategic direction since the merger.
ACA Urges FCC To Strengthen Program Access Rules Following Expiration Of Comcast-NBCU Conditions (American Cable Association)
UK regulator rules against Murdoch takeover of Sky
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority decided that Rupert Murdoch’s £11.7 billion bid to take full control of Sky would concentrate too much power in the media mogul’s hands, giving the Murdoch family “too much control over news providers across all media platforms, and therefore too much influence over public opinion and the political agenda”. Walt Disney will have to decide whether to take full control of Sky when it completes its proposed $66 billion takeover of the entertainment assets owned by Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox group. That deal, which must be cleared by regulators in the US and Europe, includes Fox’s 39 percent of Sky — and would have included 100 percent of Sky had Murdoch’s second attempt to buy Sky been approved by the CMA. But the regulator said Fox taking full control of Sky was “not in the public interest due to media plurality concerns”.
FCC commissioner O'Rielly: Regulations not the answer to Big Tech's power
Commissioner Michael O'Rielly of the Federal Communications Commission said that regulators should not crack down on big tech companies like Facebook and Google. "I’m not interested in imposing like regulation on the edge community or the high technology community to create some kind of parity level" with internet providers, Commissioner O'Rielly said. He suggested removing regulations for internet providers would put them on more even footing with the web firms. He said he would "go the opposite direction and that’s why I’ve been working pretty hard to remove barriers that no longer make any sense, and rules and regulations at the commission that no longer make any sense on, for lack of a better word, the legacy platforms that we oversee." O'Rielly said it's up to Congress to decide whether one regulator should oversee both those companies and the internet providers.
Statement of Rupert Murdoch, Executive Chairman of News Corp, on a Carriage Fee for Trusted Publishers
Facebook and Google have popularized scurrilous news sources through algorithms that are profitable for these platforms but inherently unreliable. Recognition of a problem is one step on the pathway to cure, but the remedial measures that both companies have so far proposed are inadequate, commercially, socially and journalistically. There has been much discussion about subscription models but I have yet to see a proposal that truly recognizes the investment in and the social value of professional journalism. We will closely follow the latest shift in Facebook’s strategy, and I have no doubt that Mark Zuckerberg is a sincere person, but there is still a serious lack of transparency that should concern publishers and those wary of political bias at these powerful platforms. The time has come to consider a different route. If Facebook wants to recognize ‘trusted’ publishers then it should pay those publishers a carriage fee similar to the model adopted by cable companies. The publishers are obviously enhancing the value and integrity of Facebook through their news and content but are not being adequately rewarded for those services. Carriage payments would have a minor impact on Facebook’s profits but a major impact on the prospects for publishers and journalists.
Facebook Says Social Media Can Be Negative For Democracy
In a new commentary, Facebook acknowledges the possibility that social media can have negative ramifications for democracy. This comes after repeated criticism that it didn't do enough to prevent the spread of fake news that had the potential to impact the 2016 U.S. presidential election. "Facebook was originally designed to connect friends and family – and it has excelled at that," writes Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook's Civic Engagement Product Manager. "But as unprecedented numbers of people channel their political energy through this medium, it's being used in unforeseen ways with social repercussions that were never anticipated."
What Facebook’s Feed Changes Mean for the News
For publishers, Facebook’s plans to shake-up its news feed may mean a dramatic change in traffic from the platform. The social media company has said its new algorithm will prioritize what it calls “meaningful social interactions”—posts, photos and videos that users share and discuss. Content directly from publishers won’t perform as well unless people engage with it. “The potential impact on publishers will depend on the extent to which traffic from Facebook is a significant percentage of a publisher’s traffic and, more significantly, its revenue,” says Nicco Mele of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. Yet Facebook also has said that it will surface content from “reputable publishers,” ranking news sources based on user evaluations of credibility. Experience has shown, though, that users are more likely to comment on and share sensational articles than dry, fact-based news. Publishers who have built their businesses on virality may do better, at least relative to their more staid peers. That also raises a risk that the changes will amplify fake news, which could draw renewed criticism for the company.
It’s time to rethink how we cover President Trump
[Commentary] The challenge for the coverage of Trump in 2018: How do we retake the agenda from this man who so hungers for attention, and how do we tell stories in a way that reflects the scale and sweep of the moment we’re in? I think the answer likely lays in the seams between more conventional approaches to reporting: I want to see more first-person pieces by reporters on the trail, some oral histories, some theoretical what-ifs. Let’s not leave the most truthful storytelling to fiction writers or dodgy book writers. This is an extraordinary moment, and it requires a new, proactive urgency to tell the story of this presidency as we see it, rather than fall into the swirl of familiar tropes and outrages. But we’re never going to do it if we continue to follow the lead of our dear leader, who needs us nearly as desperately as we apparently need him. [Editorial]
FIRSTNET Unveiled: America’s Only Communications Platform Dedicated to Public Safety Gets a Dedicated Brand
FirstNet, with all 50 states, 5 territories and DC on board, brings public safety their own, dedicated communications platform to help them save lives and protect communities. I’m proud to unveil the new visual identity for FirstNet products and services. Designed with only public safety in mind, this brand is rooted in 3 essential elements:
- Symbol – 3 horizontal lines represent the distinct but interconnected disciplines of public safety. They’re united in communications, symbolized by a notch in the lower right corner. This forms a speech bubble that signifies seamless communication and harmonious interoperation for first responders nationwide.
- Wordmark – FIRSTNET. We’ve bolded “first” to show that this network is, first and foremost, a solution for first responders. The technology will never be more important than the first responders it benefits. This platform belongs to them. They fought for it, and they will continue to guide its development. Plus, they’ll always be first in line for service.
- Attribution – “Built with AT&T.” We chose each word carefully to reflect the brand’s commitment to public safety.
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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