The recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 provides new sources of tribal broadband funding to assist in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which is exacerbating the digital divide across Indian Country.  With the designated funding, NTIA is in the process of developing the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) that will make grants available to eligible entities as quickly as possible.  In order to ensure the TBCP is as effective as possible, NTIA will be holding virtual Tribal Consultation sessions on February 5, 10, and 12, 2021. Registration for the virtual Tribal Consultation sessions and the agenda

Since Comcast is doing so well, one might think they could afford to be a good corporate citizen and community partner when it comes to bridging the digital equity divide. But apparently Comcast officials don’t have to play nice when they are the dominant game in town. Instead, the company has been at constant odds with Baltimore City officials and advocates over access to the internet services Baltimore children need for online learning. The latest friction comes over a data cap — Comcast prefers to call it a data threshold — that the company plans to put on its Xfinity internet customers starting in August, with additional charges for households that use too much service, more than 1.2 terabytes, and don’t sign up for unlimited plans. This, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people in Maryland still don’t have access to high-speed internet, including nearly 100,000 households — more than 40% — in Baltimore City, an Abell Foundation report found. We suggest Comcast do more, such as temporarily waiving internet fees for families who can’t afford even the Internet Essentials package. If City Council members and advocates are tired of battling with Comcast, perhaps it is time to look seriously at bringing other players to the market or even exploring the benefits of a municipal broadband system, or one run by the city.

A new SpaceX filing outlines plans for Starlink to offer phone service, emergency backup for voice calls, and cheaper plans for people with low incomes through the government's Lifeline program. The details are in Starlink's petition to the Federal Communications Commission for designation as an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) under the Communications Act. SpaceX said it needs that legal designation in some of the states where it won government funding to deploy broadband in unserved areas. The ETC designation is also needed to get reimbursement from the FCC's Lifeline program for offering discounts on telecom service to people with low incomes.

Starlink is in beta and costs $99 per month, plus a one-time fee of $499 for the user terminal, mounting tripod, and router. The SpaceX filing also says Starlink now has over 10,000 users in the US and abroad. SpaceX should have capacity for several million customers in the US—the company has permission to deploy up to 1 million user terminals (i.e. satellite dishes) and is seeking FCC permission to raise the maximum-deployment level to 5 million user terminals. SpaceX didn't provide much detail on its Lifeline plans beyond the fact that it intends to offer them.

SpaceX's filing also said that Starlink broadband and phone will be offered as common-carrier services. SpaceX taking on the common-carrier classification as part of its plan to be an ETC and accept government funding doesn't necessarily have any major significance. However, Public Knowledge's Harold Feld said, "It suggests that [SpaceX is] unlikely to fight against Title II classification. Ideally, they might even support Title II. But at a minimum, this demonstrates that they don't think Title II common carriage is some kind of horrible burden that will prevent them from offering service."

Sir Tim Berners-Lee and his business partner, John Bruce, have launched Inrupt, a company that allows consumers, rather than companies, to control their own data, to store it in pods, and to move it wherever they please. That means Facebook, Google or any other Big Tech company will no longer be able to extract an individual's photos, comments or purchase history without asking. All of that will be stored on a pod, and the individual can share the information with the company if he or she chooses. Berners-Lee explained that he came up with the open-sourced, web-based protocols for the new company while teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It's called Solid and allows anyone to share information with anyone else. They don't even need to be using the same apps. So far, the biggest deals that Inrupt has inked have been with government entities and large corporations.