Daily Digest 1/5/2022 (Maps)

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
Table of Contents

Broadband Mapping

The ‘original sin’ of broadband buildouts is keeping people offline  |  Read below  |  Ben Brody  |  Protocol

Spectrum/Wireless

Statement by President Joe Biden on 5G Deployment Agreement  |  White House
FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel's Statement On 5G Deployment Agreement  |  Federal Communications Commission
Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says FCC-FAA 5G spectrum dispute calls for confirmation of NTIA head  |  S&P Global
Editorial | Buttigieg’s FAA and 5G Mid-Air Collision: Here’s the political back story on the wireless-airline feud  |  Wall Street Journal
Verizon's upgraded 5G will cover 100 million people in January 2022  |  C|Net

Health

White House Requests Input on Developing Digital, Community-Oriented Health Care Services  |  Read below  |  Public Notice  |  White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Platforms/Social Media

The state tech policy battles that will rage in 2022  |  Axios
A cheat sheet for 2022’s tech lawsuits  |  Protocol
Amazon and Google deploy their armies to thwart antitrust bills  |  Politico
Big Tech’s employees are one of the biggest checks on its power  |  Vox
Come the Metaverse, Can Privacy Exist?  |  Wall Street Journal
Twitter permanently bans news aggregation service Politics For All  |  Guardian, The
Fossil fuel firms among biggest spenders on Google ads that look like search results  |  Guardian, The
Election Falsehoods Surged on Podcasts Before Capitol Riots, Researchers Find  |  New York Times

Agenda

FCC Extends Comment Dates for Future of the Universal Service Fund Notice of Inquiry  |  Federal Communications Commission

Industry/Company News

How fiber and fixed wireless factor into cable’s future in 2022  |  Read below  |  Diana Goovaerts  |  Fierce
Cable One's joint venture Clearwave Fiber aims to "invest heavily" in fiber broadband a  |  telecompetitor
Fidium Fiber Internet is Bringing Big City Speeds and New High-Speed Networks to Rural New Hampshire Towns  |  Fidium Fiber
Ritter Communications Awarded $12.8 Million in Arkansas Rural Connect Grants  |  Ritter Communications
AT&T Shed Media Assets in 2021. This Year It Wants to Add Investors.  |  Wall Street Journal
Ben Smith Is Leaving The Times for a Global News Start-Up with Justin Smith, the Chief Executive of Bloomberg Media  |  New York Times

Policymakers

Rep. Brenda Lawrence announces she will not seek reelection  |  Washington Post
President Biden Re-Nominates Sohn for FCC, Bedoya for FTC  |  White House
Former FCC public safety chiefs endorse nominee Gigi Sohn  |  Read below  |  Leah Nylen  |  Politico

Stories From Abroad

China 5G: Opportunities and Challenges  |  Telecommunications Policy
Today's Top Stories

Mapping

The ‘original sin’ of broadband buildouts is keeping people offline

Ben Brody  |  Protocol

Deer Isle (ME) is one of many places in the US where it can be a pain to get good internet access. At least, that’s what residents, visitors, the town manager and the state — all the folks who actually try to use a connection — say. Spectrum tells another story. In recent months, the internet provider has cited Federal Communications Commission maps to insist that it covers almost all of the island and that the area doesn’t need federal money that might help a rival build out more capacity and access. “It just shows how woefully inadequate the current broadband maps are; yet, we continue to keep relying on them,” said Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel for Consumer Reports, who is familiar with the area. Current US broadband coverage maps vastly overstate the reality of access to the internet, and thus confound government efforts to connect all Americans. Fixing them is one of the few truly bipartisan tech issues in Washington. Even FCC personnel agree. “The original sin here is the FCC data,” said Peggy Schaffer, executive director of ConnectME, a state body that put together an application for grant money to build out broadband in seven areas of the state, including Deer Isle. “The further original sin is any assumption that the FCC data, given what they ask providers for, is accurate, because it’s not.”

Health

White House Requests Input on Developing Digital, Community-Oriented Health Care Services

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) requests input from community health stakeholders, technology developers, and other interested parties about how digital health technologies are used, or could be used in the future, to transform community health, individual wellness, and health equity. This request is part of an initiative led by OSTP dedicated to Community Connected Health – an effort that will explore and act upon how innovation in science and technology can lower the barriers for all Americans to accessing quality healthcare and lead healthier lives by meeting people where they are in their communities. We are particularly interested in information from community-based health settings and about populations traditionally underserved by healthcare. To support this effort, OSTP seeks information about successful models of strengthening community health through digital health technologies within the United States and abroad, barriers to uptake, trends from the COVID-19 pandemic, how user experience is measured, need for tools and training, ideas for potential government action, and effects on health equity.

Industry News

How fiber and fixed wireless factor into cable’s future in 2022

Diana Goovaerts  |  Fierce

In many ways, 2021 feels like the year fiber became real. Companies across the board unveiled plans for sprawling fiber deployments and billions in funding began pouring in from governments and private equity players alike. But the firm focus on fiber as we head into 2022 begs one big question: what does the future look like for cable? “I don’t think that you can talk about cable without also talking about fiber,” said Jeff Heynen, Dell’Oro Group VP of Broadband Access and Home Networking. According to Heynen, there’s a growing mindset among certain cable players that “now would be a good time to go ahead and start to overbuild with fiber.” Indeed, the beginnings of this trend could already be seen in 2021, as companies like Blue Ridge Communications in the US and Virgin Media O2 in the UK announced plans to rebuild their entire cable networks with fiber. In North America, Heynen said Tier 2 and Tier 3 players are the ones jumping ship to fiber the fastest, in part because it’s less expensive for them to do so than it would be for a company like Comcast or Charter Communications. They’re also being driven by a need to stay competitive and the prospect of cost savings stemming from the removal of active electronics in the field.

Policymakers

Former FCC public safety chiefs endorse nominee Gigi Sohn

Leah Nylen  |  Politico

Three former Federal Communications Commission public safety chiefs endorsed Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] for the open Democratic commissioner slot. In a pair of letters to the Senate Commerce Committee on January 3, Jamie Barnett, David Simpson and David Turetsky — who all worked at the FCC during the Obama administration — said Sohn has strongly supported law enforcement and first responders. These endorsements could provide a counterweight to temper concerns voiced by the Fraternal Order of Police over Sohn’s ties to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and its support for encrypted communication, which the organization considers a safety risk. Encryption policy, Sohn defenders note, is typically beyond the FCC purview.

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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 Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.


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Kevin Taglang

Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
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