Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the FCC is seeking outreach partners to help share important consumer information about the Emergency Broadband Benefit – an FCC program being developed to provide relief to households that are struggling to pay for internet service during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the effort to inform consumers about the upcoming Emergency Broadband Benefit, the FCC has established a new website where stakeholders can sign up to help promote this new program. The website can be found at fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit. As the program is developed, the website will also be a resource for consumers and stakeholders to get the latest information on the Emergency Broadband Benefit. “We all have a part to play in this effort,” said Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel. “I hope every one of you will join us as we seek to raise awareness about this opportunity to get more of us connected.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the digital divide on policymakers’ agenda like never before. It is challenging them to find solutions that meet the urgency of the crisis while building a foundation for sustainable progress over time. This means that policymakers will want to build on lessons learned and explore new approaches. In contemplating these and other ideas, policymakers may want to look at analysis of broadband adoption barriers – the more reliable the better. Unfortunately, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) recently published a study entitled “Broadband Myths: Are High Broadband Prices Holding Back Adoption?” that falls short of the mark. ITIF’s argument on the role of the affordability of service in broadband adoption boils down to the following: 1) Policymakers risk “tunnel vision” if they pay too much attention to affordability of broadband service, and; 2) Broadband prices in the United States are competitive with other nations’, implying that concerns about costs in the US being too high are overblown. ITIF notes, correctly, that there are multiple reasons why many US households do not subscribe to broadband. But affordability of service plays an outsized role. By suggesting it does not, the ITIF research risks constraining policymakers and other stakeholders as they seek to bridge digital adoption gaps. Moreover, in support of its argument downplaying the role of affordability, ITIF may confuse readers by citing research without the proper context.

Cox's "Ultimate" Internet plan with 300Mbps download and 30Mbps upload speeds was changed to a 500Mbps download, 10Mbps upload package early in 2020. At first, Cox let customers on the 300Mbps/30Mbps version keep it, without any nudges to change their plans or upgrade their modems. But that changed with the email Cox sent to other customers recently. Cox said customers can keep their 30Mbps upload speeds if they upgrade to a newer modem. But that option wasn't included in the email to customers, which created the impression that the upload-speed cut is mandatory unless they pay for a more expensive Internet plan. While the boost from 300Mbps to 500Mbps download speeds is nice, it pales in comparison to a 67 percent cut in upload speeds during a pandemic that has demonstrated the importance of upstream bandwidth to families with people working and taking classes at home.

While Lumen, CenturyLink's enterprise business, reaped the financial rewards from the Federal Communications Commission's Connect America Fund (CAF) II, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is taking a back seat to Lumen's fiber builds. Lumen CEO Jeff Storey and CFO Neel Dev said they see better returns from its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) investments than in the FCC's RDOF project for rural broadband. In the RDOF reverse auction results that were announced in December, Lumen was awarded just over $262 million to deploy broadband in 77,257 locations across 20 states. With the quiet period for RDOF ending, Lumen execs provided some color on RDOF. "We took a very disciplined and ROI-based approach to RDOF," Dev said. "In fact, even after factoring in the subsidy, we see better returns from the fiber-to-the-home investments we are making with our micro-targeting strategy. Even when you net out the subsidy, our returns that we see on fiber-to-the-home is significantly higher." Dev added, "[O]ne of the largest winners of RDOF just announced that it's a $5 billion price tag to build out to about one million homes. If you compare that to the 400,000 homes that we just enabled last year, we certainly didn't spend a couple of billion. And so we have a different profile in terms of where we're investing fiber-to-the-home, and we'll be success-based on that front."