Daily Digest 1/26/2018 (BDAC)

In the latest in a legislative flurry of broadband-related items, a bipartisan bill has been introduced in both the House and Senate to promote rural broadband deployment and identify fallow broadband fields in key agricultural sectors. The bill, the Precision Agricultural Connectivity Act, would require the Federal Communications Commission to create a task force in cooperation with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)--currently their headquarters are cheek by hog jowl in D.C.--to evaluate the best way to promote broadband for precision agriculture--self-driving tractors, IoT devices, drones for crop assessment, etc. Reps Bob Latta (R-OH) and Dave Loebsack (D-IA) introduced the House version--they are co-chairs of the Rural Broadband Caucus, while Sens Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced the Senate version. The FCC/USDAtask force would be asked to:

• Identify and measure current gaps in broadband coverage on cropland and ranchland
• Assemble a comprehensive guide of all federal programs or resources dedicated to expanding broadband access on cropland and ranchland
• Develop policy recommendations, in consultation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to promote the rapid, expanded deployment of fixed and mobile high-speed broadband on cropland and ranchland, with the goal of achieving service on 95 percent of croplands and ranchlands in the United States by 2025
• Recommend specific steps the FCC can take to ensure that available farm data from the USDA is reflected in developing Federal programs to deploy broadband to croplands and ranchlands
• Submit an annual report to Congress detailing the status of fixed and mobile broadband coverage on croplands and ranchlands; the projected future connectivity needs of agricultural operations, farmers, and ranchers; and the steps being taken to accurately measure the availability of high-speed broadband on croplands and ranchlands and the limitations of current measurement processes.

When the Federal Communications Commission overturned the network neutrality rules in December 2017, it gave the green light to cable and other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to make the internet start looking more like cable TV. Given this lack of oversight, not only may new price schemes emerge that were previously illegal under the net neutrality rules, but with the FCC’s hands off the wheel, cable companies may feel emboldened to spread the pernicious below-the-line fees we see in our monthly cable bills to our internet service bills, too. With virtually no competition or public oversight, cable companies have been raising prices 2-3 times the rate of inflation for over 20 years. Price hikes are added and hidden as new fees, like the regional sports fee, the broadcast fee, and HD technology fee. Price hikes have spread to items that cost much less than they charge, such as fees for set-top boxes, and connecting multiple TVs within one home. Hidden or not, these fees are deceptive and try to keep you from understanding the overall price you pay. Is this the model we want for the internet?

The false alert issued on January 13th by the State of Hawaii, in which recipients were warned of an imminent ballistic missile attack, was absolutely unacceptable. The Federal Communications Commission acted swiftly in the wake of this incident to open an investigation into the matter. That investigation is ongoing—we had investigators on the ground in Hawaii just last week—but based on information gathered to date, it appears that the false alert was issued as a result of both human error and the state having insufficient safeguards and process controls in place to prevent that human error from resulting in the transmission of a false alert. The Hawaii Emergency Management Agency has advised us that it is working with its vendor to integrate additional technical safeguards into its alert origination software, and has changed its protocols to require two individuals to sign off on the transmission of tests and live alerts. We are quite pleased with the level of cooperation we have received from the leadership of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency thus far. We are disappointed, however, that one key employee, the person who transmitted the false alert, is refusing to cooperate with our investigation. We hope that person will reconsider. We look forward to partnering with emergency management professionals from your jurisdictions on the alerting capabilities that they need to use the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert with confidence during crises when every second counts.

I met with small and rural broadband providers that told me that the Commission’s paperwork and reporting obligations alone now consume 23 weeks of work per year or five months of full-time labor. I heard from a small wireless provider that they have to take one of the few people they employ off of a customer service job or marketing effort and sit them in a room to complete FCC paperwork. These small businesses are not corporate behemoths. They do not have, and simply cannot afford, an army of regulatory lawyers. If we can eliminate these wasteful regulations, small businesses can get back to doing what they do best: serving their customers and creating jobs. But it is not just the paperwork burdens that had become the problem at the FCC. During the last Administration, the agency demonstrated a penchant for imposing costly and unnecessary regulations— ones that slowed down our nation’s transition to next-generation networks. The Obama-era FCC’s failed experiment with heavy-handed, utility-style regulation of the Internet is just one example. In the wake of that decision, capital expenditures by broadband providers declined for the first time ever outside of a recession. Less investment meant less deployment and, by one estimate, tens of thousands of lost jobs. But at the FCC, last January marked a turning point. We have reversed course and are now focusing on policies that will spur broadband deployment—a decision that can help create good-paying jobs across the economy.