The Federal Communications Commission proposed a new regulatory framework to facilitate innovative collaborations between satellite operators and wireless companies. These partnerships leverage the growth in space-based services to connect smartphone users in remote, unserved, and underserved areas. Numerous such collaborations have been launched recently, and the FCC seeks to establish clear and transparent processes to support supplemental coverage from space. Connecting consumers to essential wireless services where no terrestrial mobile service is available can be life-saving in remote locations and can open up innovative opportunities for consumers and businesses. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted proposes a framework through which satellite operators collaborating with terrestrial service providers would be able to obtain FCC authorization to operate space stations on certain currently licensed, flexible-use spectrums allocated to terrestrial services. The FCC is proposing to add a mobile-satellite service allocation on some terrestrial flexible-use bands. The FCC proposes allowing authorized non-geostationary orbit satellite operators to apply to access the terrestrial spectrum if certain prerequisites are met, including a lease from the terrestrial licensee within a specified geographic area. A satellite operator could then serve a wireless provider’s customers should they need connectivity in remote areas. The FCC will also seek comments on how this framework might best support access to emergency response systems like 911 and Wireless Emergency Alerts when a consumer is connected via supplemental coverage from space.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) and Office of the Managing Director offer guidance to participants in the COVID-19 Telehealth Program on the expected expiration of the National Emergency and Public Health Emergency on May 11, 2023. Pursuant to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, all payments from health care providers to vendors must be completed and all supported services must be received before the emergency period ends. The deadline to purchase and implement services supported by the COVID-19 Telehealth Program has already passed, so the expiration of the emergency period will not impact this deadline. For most awardees, the deadline to purchase services was October 31, 2022. All equipment supported by the Program must be delivered by May 11, 2023, and all recurring services must be received by May 11, 2023.

Broadband access is an essential social determinant of health, the importance of which was made apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to understand disparities in broadband access within cities and identify potential solutions to increase urban access. This was a descriptive secondary analysis using multi-year cross-sectional survey data. Data were obtained from the City Health Dashboard and American Community Survey. We studied broadband access in 905 large US cities, stratifying neighborhood broadband access by neighborhood median household income and racial/ethnic composition. In 2017, 30% of urban households across 905 large US cities did not have access to high-speed broadband internet. After controlling for median household income, broadband access in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods was 10–15% lower than in majority White or Asian neighborhoods. Over time, the lack of broadband access in urban households decreased from 30% in 2017 to 24% in 2021, but racial and income disparities persisted. As an emerging social determinant, broadband access impacts health across the life course, affecting students' ability to learn and adults’ ability to find and retain jobs. Resolving the lack of broadband access remains an urban priority. City policymakers can harness recent infrastructure funding opportunities to reduce broadband access disparities.

Governor Laura Kelly (D-KS) announced that Kansas is the first state to receive $15 million in US Department of Treasury Digital Connectivity Technology (DCT) funds. The money will support equal access to high-speed internet, provide devices to underserved Kansans, and expand digital skills training for communities across Kansas. The DCT funds are made available under the American Rescue Plan Act's (ARPA) Capital Projects Fund (CPF). States have the option to put all CPF dollars toward broadband infrastructure or to set aside some of the funding for programs that ensure broadband is more fully accessible to hard-to-reach communities. The Kansas Office of Broadband has been conducting meetings across the state to solicit feedback for a five-year broadband access and digital equity strategic plan. These listening sessions have also highlighted the need for laptops/computers, public wi-fi, and digital training programs. 

Over 150 network operators applied for funding in a broadband program operated by the state of Michigan. The operators requested $1.3 billion in funding through the program, which has a budget of $231 million. Applications were due on March 15, 2023, in the Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) program. The $1.3 billion in funding would have covered some of the costs of broadband deployments estimated to cost a total of $2.3 billion. The applications proposed to connect approximately 380,000 locations. The Michigan High-Speed Internet (MIHI) Office said it was “excited and energized by the overwhelming interest in the program and the enthusiasm of applicants.” Awards will be based on a scoring system, with a steering committee making initial grant recommendations followed by a 45-day comment period. During that period, challengers can object to awards if the areas involved already have service available at speeds of 100/20 Mbps, are planned to be connected at that speed within one year, or are part of another federal or state program that will deliver service at that speed.

Community decision-making is the foundation of Maine’s DNA. Town meetings, volunteer school boards, and local planning efforts are all central to what makes this Maine. Dozens of communities have started this process with local people identifying locations and groups needing better service to develop plans addressing these gaps. But these community-led efforts are under threat from big monopoly internet service providers, who fear competition will lose customers. Companies like Charter Communications are working across Maine to sow distrust in these hard-working, community-based, and knowledgeable volunteers trying to address service gaps that private companies have failed to fill for decades. It is the same tactic they have used in other states like Michigan and Ohio to attempt to derail community-led solutions. They cite examples, using bad data, of community-owned internet networks that “failed” across. At the heart of this issue is funding. Maine has real funding to build out networks to serve areas of the state lacking a high-quality internet connection. And communities are best placed to make choices about what type of technology needs to be, who it should serve, and how access to that infrastructure should be owned. Given the scale of public funding supporting this infrastructure buildout and the long-term importance of the internet for education, workforce, telehealth, and economic development, community governance is essential to ensure the internet remains affordable and accessible for decades to come. Community-owned infrastructure doesn’t preclude broadband providers from operating in the same territory. It encourages competition and offers better service to more homes. 

[Peggy Schaffer retired in August as the director of the ConnectMaine Authority. She is on the  policy and communications committee for the Maine Broadband Coalition and serves on the board of the American Association for Public Broadband.]

A Q&A with Dina Srinivasan, who, in February 2019 as an independent scholar, published an academic paper entitled ‘The Antitrust Case Against Facebook’, in which she identified a correlation between privacy and economics — and argued that the social media giant lowered its privacy standards as soon as it had defeated its rivals. Just months later, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a coalition of state attorneys-general began preparing an antitrust investigation into the tech group, filing actions against it in the following year. Then, in December 2020, Srinivasan published another paper suggesting that Google dominates advertising markets by engaging in conduct that lawmakers prohibit in financial markets. Just over a year later, the US Department of Justice and several states sued the tech company, alleging that its dominance in digital advertising harms competition. Both cases continue, and the companies contest the claims, but Srinivasan believes their power has been allowed to become too great.

For over a year, [Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate] Gigi Sohn stayed relatively silent as she faced a barrage of attacks over her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission, which had languished in the Senate since President Joe Biden tapped her in October 2021. But her plans began to shift, she said, after speaking with the White House and a top Senate Democrat in the days before she would eventually announce her withdrawal. “They basically said, ‘There's no path forward for you,’” Sohn said of her talks with Biden administration officials and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), whose panel was reviewing her nomination. “At that point, what was the point?” Sohn said in addition to having to put her “life on hold” during the process as senators sparred over her pick, she was frustrated by her inability to speak out against ongoing rebukes. “The one thing you don't do as a nominee is you don't defend yourself … you've got to keep your mouth shut,” she said. Sohn cited “unrelenting, dishonest and cruel attacks” seeded by cable and media industry lobbyists in her announcement to pull out. Sohn said the opposition took on a frightening new dimension in recent weeks after a pair of articles in Fox News and the Daily Mail highlighted her affiliation with a digital rights group that opposed a controversial anti-sex-trafficking law. Sohn, who would have been the first openly gay FCC commissioner, said the implication in the articles were “clearly tied to QAnon themes about LGBTQ+ people as groomers, as perverts, as sex traffickers.” And she said she felt it put her and her loved ones at risk. “That was the first time I felt like ‘Oh my god, this could really rile up some crazies to come to my house … and threaten me and my family,’” Sohn said.