High-speed internet is not really available where the government says it is. And that misinformation means that a lot of Americans, especially those in poor and rural areas, can’t get access to broadband — a service that is becoming more and more integral to daily life in the US. “Currently in the US, the focus is upon physical infrastructure, not upon people choosing to subscribe or being able to subscribe,” said Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a nonprofit advocating for national broadband access. Broadband usage data from Microsoft — which was released late in 2018 and is based on anonymous data the company collected on how fast its products were actually being used and updated — paints a much bleaker picture. Microsoft’s data says 163 million people don’t use high-speed internet in the US, while the Federal Communications Commission estimates that it’s not available to 25 million Americans. That’s a difference of 138 million people — more than a third of the US population.

“There’s a lot of money tied to this data,” said Kathryn de Wit, manager of the broadband research initiative for Pew Charitable Trusts. “If a community is considered served, in many cases they’re no longer eligible to receive funding. If you have an inaccurate picture of what connectivity looks like at the block level, you may be passing over communities that really do need connectivity.” ISPs currently fill out a document twice a year called Form 477, which provides the basis for the government’s broadband maps. “We’ve known Form 477 sucked for the better part of a couple years now,” said Christopher Ali, an assistant professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and a research fellow at the Benton Foundation. “But this is the tension between industry and regulation, and industry is winning, to the detriment of rural America.”

New York’s Public Service Commission has approved T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint with some conditions related to jobs and benefits provided to employees in the fourth most populated state in the country. The state agency determined that the merger is “not expected to cause interruptions or changes in service for existing Sprint wireline customers.” Moreover, as a condition for approval, the commission is requiring the company to continue to operate its relay call center in Syracuse and honor existing contracts until they expire. To offset concerns about job losses in New York, at least in the near term, the combined company has agreed that the number of employees in the state “will be at least equal to the total number of employees of Sprint and T-Mobile employees as of the closing of the merger,” and will continue for three years. The companies also agreed to provide current T-Mobile employees with the same benefits they receive today and to make equivalent benefits available to current Sprint employees. The agency also said it will track the company’s progress on 5G deployments in New York and determine if New T-Mobile delivers on its promise to provide 5G service to the “overwhelming majority” of coverage areas within three to five years of the merger closing.

The companies have now received approval from 16 of the required 19 state public utilities commissions. 

More details have emerged from the Vice investigation into carriers selling their customers’ real-time location data, including assisted GPS (“A-GPS”) data intended only for emergency services. The reports are shocking and illustrate both a brazen disregard for consumer privacy on the part of the companies involved and the disturbing, unregulated behavior of the data brokerage industry. The Federal Communications Commission, led by Chairman Ajit Pai, needs to act immediately to enforce what appears to be a clear violation of the FCC’s rules against the selling of A-GPS data with third parties. In addition, Congress must pass comprehensive privacy legislation that forces the data broker industry out of the shadows and stops the persistent misuse of data at the expense of consumer privacy.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) joined the 2020 Democratic race, separating herself from the pack by talking up her efforts to take on big tech. “We need to put some digital rules into law when it comes to people’s privacy. For too long the big tech companies have been telling you ‘Don’t worry! We’ve got your back!’ while your identities are being stolen and your data is mined,” she said during her launch. “Our laws need to be as sophisticated as the people who are breaking them.” Sen. Klobuchar has made the oversight of big tech one of her banner issues in Congress. She’s scrutinized Facebook, Google, and Twitter as they’ve been forced to explain their policies on privacy and political advertising. She wants to make it harder for big companies to buy or merge with smaller companies.