U.S. broadband providers continue to deploy and upgrade networks to bring consumers across the nation ever-faster service and more competitive choice, according to a new USTelecom and CensusNBM analysis of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) broadband availability data for mid-year 2017. This research demonstrates the real economic impact of broadband capital investment dollars: more and faster broadband for American consumers and businesses. According to the latest USTelecom analysis, wireline, wireless, and cable broadband providers invested $76 billion in 2017 and more than $1.6 trillion since 1996. The broadband availability data indicate that deployment is progressing. In the 18 months from the end of 2015 to mid-2017, fiber deployment grew from 21 percent to 29 percent of homes and competitive availability of wired broadband at 25 megabits per second (mbps) download and 3 mbps upload increased from 31 percent to 55 percent. During the same period, the difference between non-rural and rural deployment of fixed broadband at 10 mbps download and 1 mbps upload narrowed from 20 percent to 14 percent. By mid-2017, broadband at 100 mbps download was available to 89 percent of Americans.

High-speed broadband and mobile internet have created more opportunities to access free news and information than ever before. But they have also made it harder for quality news and information outlets, particularly ones in rural areas, to survive. Tech has disrupted the local media business model and pushed more journalism behind paywalls — and there's no end in sight. Experts worry that the deployment of 5G over the next few years will worsen the digital divide and have a lasting impact on how rural communities will be able to access quality news and information. National cable and broadcast networks that reach rural America are pushing resources into streaming channels as linear television revenues decline. But a lack of high-speed broadband in rural America will make it more difficult for some communities to access those streaming channels as more traditional channels are pulled off the air due to economic pressures.

The lack of affordable broadband access in the US has resulted in large-scale educational inequities especially in rural areas where 31 percent of Americans have no choice of broadband providers. For many years, Educational Broadband Service (EBS) licensees have been dedicated to helping solve these inequities, but a proceeding at the Federal Communications Commission is putting these services at risk. EBS licensees are accredited educational institutions (or nonprofits focused on serving the needs of accredited educational institutions). For the last 50 years, EBS licensees have operated transmission facilities on the only spectrum reserved for educational use, the 2.5 GHz band. Unfortunately, in 1995 the FCC stopped issuing new EBS licenses, leaving about half of the geographic areas of the country, primarily in rural areas, without access to this 2.5GHz spectrum. In these rural areas, EBS remains an untapped resource that could make a significant difference in ensuring that those without broadband aren’t left behind.

[Lee Solonche is the Executive Director of the National EBS Association (NEBSA), the professional association for those institutions who hold EBS (formerly ITFS) licenses.]

The Federal Communications Commission has once again refused a New York Times request for records that the Times believes might shed light on Russian interference in the net neutrality repeal proceeding. The Times made a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request in June 2017 for FCC server logs and sued the FCC in September 2018 over the agency's ongoing refusal to release the records. The court case is still pending, but the Times had also appealed directly to the FCC to reverse its FoIA decision. The FCC denied that appeal. Although the Times narrowed its records request to satisfy the FCC's privacy and security concerns, the FCC says it still won't provide any of the requested data. Doing so, the agency asserts, would require more than a simple database search and require the FCC to "create records that do not already exist." The Times' FoIA request was for server logs related to the system for accepting public comments. The Times sought the information in order to investigate Russian involvement in fraudulent public comments. A similar request was made by Buzzfeed News, and the FCC rejected the requests from both news organizations.

"What is the Federal Communications Commission hiding?" FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel asked in her dissenting statement. She pointed to the widespread fraud in the net neutrality proceeding, saying that "as many as 9.5 million people had their identities stolen and used to file fake comments, which is a crime under both federal and state laws." "Something here is rotten—and it's time for the FCC to come clean,"Commissioner Rosenworcel said. "Regrettably, this agency will not do this on its own. So it falls to those who seek to investigate from outside its walls."

FCC Chairman Pai fired back at Commissioner Rosenworcel in a statement of his own, complaining that Rosenworcel didn't support Pai's efforts to improve FCC transparency during the Obama administration, when Democrats held the commission majority. "What has changed between then and now? Literally nothing, other than the political affiliation of the FCC's leadership (and a lot more transparency now than the agency ever had then)," Pai wrote. "What is required in this matter, as in any other, is sober analysis of the facts and the law—not partisan gamesmanship. Fortunately, the Commission majority embraces that ethos in this item."