Daily Digest 1/6/2021 (Sen Raphael Gamaliel Warnock)

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
Table of Contents

Broadband/Internet

Creating (Finally) an Emergency Broadband Benefit  |  Read below  |  Kevin Taglang  |  Analysis  |  Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
Comcast data cap blasted by Massachusetts state lawmakers as it expands into 12 more states  |  Read below  |  Jon Brodkin  |  Ars Technica
Stuart Brotman op-ed: A Better Way to Close the Digital Divide  |  Inside Sources
If Biden is serious about broadband, he should oppose net neutrality  |  Read below  |  Mark Jamison  |  Op-Ed  |  American Enterprise Institute

Wireless

Verizon indefinitely delays 3G network shutdown  |  Light Reading

Platforms/Social Media

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said it is uncertain if he could participate in any Section 230 proceeding  |  Read below  |  David Shepardson  |  Reuters
Facebook will resume political ad ban in Georgia after polls close  |  Axios
Op-Ed | The 1996 Law That Ruined the Internet: Why I changed my mind about Section 230  |  Atlantic, The

Security

US intelligence community says Russia is ‘likely’ behind major, ongoing cyberhacks of federal agencies  |  Washington Post
Chairman Pai Remarks to the Center for Strategic and International Studies  |  Read below  |  FCC Chairman Ajit Pai  |  Speech  |  Federal Communications Commission
President Trump Bans Alipay and 7 Other Chinese Apps  |  New York Times

Education

Additional $54 Billion in COVID Relief Aid for K-12 Students, Teachers, and Schools  |  Department of Education

Government & Communications

Recently Passed Pandemic Relief Bill Contains DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act  |  Read below  |  Andrew Westrope  |  Government Technology

Lobbying/Policymakers

Electric Co-ops Form Broadband Association  |  Read below  |  Carl Weinschenk  |  telecompetitor
WISPA Purchases Multifamily Broadband Council and Absorbed its Members  |  Wireless Internet Service Providers Association
SHLB Coalition Announces New Board Directors, Officers  |  Schools Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition

Stories From Abroad

Chinese Regulators Try to Get Jack Ma’s Ant Group to Share Consumer Data  |  Wall Street Journal
World’s Worst Internet Shutdowns Cost India $2.8 Billion in 2020  |  Bloomberg
81,000 UK-owned .eu domains suspended as Brexit transition ends  |  ZDNet
The Year Ahead: 3 Predictions From the ‘Father of the Internet’ Vint Cerf  |  nextgov
Today's Top Stories

Sample Category

Creating (Finally) an Emergency Broadband Benefit

Kevin Taglang  |  Analysis  |  Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

More than nine months after the national COVID-19 emergency was declared, Congress has directed the Federal Communications Commission to create an emergency broadband benefit, a monthly discount on broadband internet access service for low-income people. On January 4, the FCC released a Public Notice asking for comment on how to best implement this new program which Congress expects to be up and running in the next two months. Here's a look at what the FCC is asking.

Comcast data cap blasted by Massachusetts state lawmakers as it expands into 12 more states

Jon Brodkin  |  Ars Technica

Dozens of state lawmakers from Massachusetts urged Comcast to halt enforcement of its 1.2TB monthly data cap, saying the cap hurts low-income people during the pandemic and is unnecessary because of Comcast's healthy network capacity. The letter to Comcast Senior VP Mark Reilly, spearheaded by MA State Reps Andy Vargas and Dave Rogers, disputed Comcast's claim that a 1.2TB cap only affects a very small subset of customers it calls "super users." The lawmakers also wrote that "Massachusetts has experienced the largest relative increase of food-insecure individuals in the nation due to COVID-19, and has suffered some of highest unemployment rates in the nation. The last thing our constituents need is to worry about paying more for the same quality of Internet service."

If Biden is serious about broadband, he should oppose net neutrality

Mark Jamison  |  Op-Ed  |  American Enterprise Institute

 A new empirical study of net neutrality regulations in 32 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries found that the regulations suppress broadband subscriptions and investment in fiber optics. What’s the bottom line? If the Joe Biden administration is serious about following science, it won’t try to resuscitate net neutrality. And hopefully Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s investment in economics at the FCC will lead a Biden FCC to be more evidence-based in its decision-making than the last Obama FCC.

[Mark Jamison is the director and Gunter Professor of the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business.]

FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said it is uncertain if he could participate in any Section 230 proceeding

David Shepardson  |  Reuters

The office of Federal Communications Commissioner Nathan Simington said it is uncertain if he could participate in any Section 230 proceeding. Simington’s office said FCC ethics counsel advised “as there is no currently-pending Section 230 matter before the commission to be discussed with specificity, it could not comprehensively rule out potential recusal in the future. However, no grounds were identified for recusal on this topic at this time.”

Chairman Pai Remarks to the Center for Strategic and International Studies

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai  |  Speech  |  Federal Communications Commission

The Communications Act of 1934 outlines several reasons why our agency was created, including “for the purpose of the national defense” and “for the purposes of promoting safety of life and property.” Consistent with those charges, identifying threats to our communications networks and taking aggressive action to counteract those threats have been among the hallmarks of the Federal Communications Commission during my four years as Chairman. With communications technologies underlying virtually every aspect of our economy and society, and with the pace of technological change quickening, it’s become more important than ever that government be proactive. And that we have done. 

The previous FCC...allowed federal subsidies to be used by US telecommunications carriers to purchase equipment from companies with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and military, like Huawei and ZTE. And it issued a non-binding white paper on cybersecurity—on January 18, 2017, two days before Inauguration Day—that had no concrete plan of action and didn’t mention China at all.

We can and must no longer consider foreign threats to be sufficiently addressed with aspirational talk, bureaucratic indifference, or a naïve approach to the world that simply pretends these threats do not exist. I am optimistic that there will be no turning back.

Recently Passed Pandemic Relief Bill Contains DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act

Andrew Westrope  |  Government Technology

Buried in the recent pandemic relief bill passed just before the end of 2020 was the DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act, a bipartisan attempt to make it easier for government agencies to set up official websites with a .gov domain, as opposed to other options such as .com or .org. If the bill works as intended, it could help combat fraud and add credibility to government websites, and proponents of the measure consider it a step in the right direction for cybersecurity. The DOTGOV Act shifts responsibility for administering official Web domains from the General Services Administration to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). It also requires CISA to come up with an outreach strategy and offer resources to local governments looking to migrate to .gov domains.

Electric Co-ops Form Broadband Association

Carl Weinschenk  |  telecompetitor

In what they say is a first, five electric cooperatives in three states have formed an association of broadband co-ops aimed at bolstering services in underserved rural areas. The Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Broadband Cooperatives (VMDABC) is structurally modeled after existing cooperative associations. VMDABC will offer classes of membership based on types of co-op members and their goals. VMDABC classes of membership will include co-op affiliates offering retail fiber, co-ops pursuing middle mile or “backbone” fiber, other broadband entities, and vendors. The five class A founders are Prince George Electric Cooperative; BARC Electric Cooperative (and subsidiary BARC CONNECTS); Central Virginia Electric Cooperative (and subsidiary Firefly Fiber Broadband); Choptank Electric Cooperative (and subsidiary Choptank Fiber LLC) and Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative. Founding members of the new association all are in various stages of creating fiber-to-the-home networks. The association will provide management and technical support to members through a management services agreement and will have separate legislative representation in the Maryland and Virginia legislatures.

Submit a Story

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.


© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2020. Redistribution of this email publication — both internally and externally — is encouraged if it includes this message. For subscribe/unsubscribe info email: headlines AT benton DOT org


Kevin Taglang

Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
727 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL 60202
847-328-3049
headlines AT benton DOT org

Share this edition:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society All Rights Reserved © 2019