Daily Digest 3/24/2020 (Peak Internet is the New Normal)

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
Table of Contents

Coronavirus Response

Coronavirus has made peak internet usage into the new normal  |  Read below  |  Marguerite Reardon  |  C|Net
US internet lifelines face a tough test  |  Read below  |  Ina Fried, Margaret Harding McGill  |  Axios
US students are being asked to work remotely. But 22% of homes don't have internet  |  Read below  |  Dana Floberg  |  Op-Ed  |  Guardian, The
Students, Schools Navigate the Inequity of the Digital Divide  |  Read below  |  Jed Pressgrove  |  Government Technology
Rural communities' digital deserts cripple tele-education during coronavirus outbreak  |  Read below  |  Ivan Pereira  |  ABC
Community Use of E-Rate-Supported Wi-Fi is Permitted During Closures  |  Read below  |  Public Notice  |  Federal Communications Commission
Study-From-Car Hotspots Offered to Maine Local Schools  |  University of Maine System
Verizon Again Tweaks Plans in Response to COVID-19 Crisis  |  Read below  |  Press Release  |  Verizon
FCC Commissioner Carr Praises Internet Providers' New Plans for Low-Income, Student Access  |  Read below  |  Press Release  |  
Shane Tews: Facing COVID-19, the FCC and private sector come together to keep Americans connected  |  American Enterprise Institute
Corona Pandemic Exposes the Holes in our Freedom to Connect and the Digital Divide.  |  Bruce Kushnick
Over 250 Groups Seek More Expansive Lifeline Response from FCC  |  Read below  |  John Eggerton  |  Multichannel News
Keeping Connected Amid Crisis  |  Read below  |  Research  |  Free Press
Getting internet access to everyone during a pandemic is not an easy job  |  Read below  |  Marketplace
Senators Markey and Thune Call on FCC and Justice Dept. to Combat Coronavirus Robocalls  |  US Senate

Wireless

Order on Non-Responsive 800 MHz Licensees  |  Federal Communications Commission
Chairman Pai's Response to Sen Manchin Regarding Mobility Fund Phase II  |  Read below  |  FCC Chairman Ajit Pai  |  Letter  |  Federal Communications Commission
5G Won't Help Rural Americans Shelter in Place  |  Read below  |  Tara Lachapelle  |  Op-Ed  |  Bloomberg
T-Mobile’s budget $15 Connect plan will launch on March 25th  |  Read below  |  Monica Chin  |  Vox
CTIA Report: The US is far behind in freeing up licensed mid-band spectrum for 5G  |  CTIA - The Wireless Association
SpaceX gets FCC license for 1 million satellite-broadband user terminals  |  Ars Technica

Platforms

Big Tech Could Emerge From Coronavirus Crisis Stronger Than Ever  |  New York Times
The Coronavirus Revives Facebook as a News Powerhouse  |  New York Times
Twitter says coronavirus disinformation spread by Chinese officials does not violate rules  |  Hill, The
There Is a Racial Divide in Speech-Recognition Systems, Researchers Say  |  New York Times

Privacy/Security

As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets  |  New York Times
Consumer Reports: California Consumer Privacy Act Enforcement Must Proceed  |  Multichannel News
Why Don’t We Just Ban Targeted Advertising?  |  Wired
Millions of Americans are suddenly working from home. That's a huge security risk  |  CNN
Cyberspace Solarium Commission Delivers US Cybersecurity Roadmap, Focuses on Layered Cyber Deterrence  |  Cyberspace Solarium Commission

Elections and Media

Joe Biden Looks to Build Digital Capabilities Amid Pandemic  |  Wall Street Journal
President Trump lashes out at networks, newspapers: All I see is 'hatred of me'  |  Hill, The
White House hits CNN, MSNBC for cutting away from coronavirus briefing  |  Hill, The

Journalism

Local News Outlets Dealt a Crippling Blow by This Biggest of Stories  |  New York Times

Government & Communications

US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit Rules President Trump cannot block critics on Twitter  |  Washington Post
Chairman Pai's Response to Members of Congress Regarding FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System  |  Federal Communications Commission

Stories From Abroad

ITU Guidelines for national emergency telecommunication plans  |  Read below  |  Research  |  International Telecommunication Union
Rise in voice calls puts UK telecoms networks under strain  |  Financial Times
3 Newspapers Ask China to Reverse Decision to Expel American Journalists  |  New York Times
South Africa enacts regulations criminalizing ‘disinformation’ on coronavirus outbreak  |  Committee to Protect Journalists
Today's Top Stories

Sample Category

Coronavirus has made peak internet usage into the new normal

Marguerite Reardon  |  C|Net

Millions of people are working from home, children are attending school remotely, and they've all turned to their home broadband connections to stay connected. So far networks in the US and the world have been holding up even as usage spikes. But will it continue? "To be honest, I think we just don't know the answer," said Jon Sallet, a senior fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, and a former general counsel at the Federal Communications Commission. "But that's something the FCC should be asking the nation's broadband providers and telling the American people the answer." FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel agrees. She said agency "needs to report daily on the state of communications networks in this country" just as it does following natural disasters, like hurricanes and power outages. "It needs to do this here. Now. Because these are the networks we are all counting on for some semblance of modern life."  Sallet says it's crucial that the FCC collect data to know how the networks perform during this crisis. "This is a really important question that needs answering," Sallet said. "As Congress looks at how to rebuild our economy and a stimulus package, broadband will play an essential role. But we need to know what worked and what didn't."

US internet lifelines face a tough test

Ina Fried, Margaret Harding McGill  |  Axios

With the in-person economy in the US essentially shut down, the internet has never been more critical. The key question now is how well the network can handle the unprecedented demand. Europe's networks have already come under strain, and if cloud services and internet service providers here falter, "shelter in place" could get a lot rougher. As hard as things are right now, just think how much better off we are now than if this crisis happened two decades ago, before Amazon Prime, streaming video and video conferencing — and before the network delivering all these services had been built up to the speed and capacity they require.

US students are being asked to work remotely. But 22% of homes don't have internet

Dana Floberg  |  Op-Ed  |  Guardian, The

Nationwide, approximately 22% of households don’t have home internet, including more than 4 million households with school-age children. Poor families and people of color are particularly impacted – only 56% of households making less than $20,000 have home broadband, and black and Hispanic households lag behind their white counterparts even when we control for income differences. Even among students who theoretically have access, not all access is equal. According to census research, 8% of households who have internet rely exclusively on mobile broadband. Once again, low-income people and communities of color are disproportionately more likely to be mobile-only broadband adopters. This also has particular impacts on students – only about half of school-age children who live in mobile-only households personally use the internet at home, perhaps because of the difficulty of sharing mobile devices. And while it’s better than being completely disconnected, mobile-only access isn’t ideal. Mobile services are often limited by data caps, and mobile devices can make certain tasks incredibly challenging. Imagine studying for your calculus exam or writing a world-history paper on a cellphone. This is a reality for a lot of students who don’t have home broadband. Despite what you might hear from some folks in Congress, the digital divide isn’t just about rural communities, or people who don’t adopt broadband because they “just don’t get it. In fact, study after study shows that people don’t have internet because they can’t afford it, and because systemic racial discrimination blocks them from subscribing.

While students and their families grapple with this sudden dramatic shift to online learning, policymakers and internet service providers must act. Free Press has called on all internet service providers to suspend data caps and overage fees, pause service disconnections, expand low-cost services, and even to waive billing for those hardest hit by the novel coronavirus and the social distancing required to contain it. Some ISPs are taking up the call, but there’s still much more that companies and policymakers can and should do to bridge the digital divide in this moment of crisis. We need public policies that bring real price competition to ensure universally affordable broadband access.

[Dana Floberg is the policy manager at the nonpartisan advocacy group Free Press]

Students, Schools Navigate the Inequity of the Digital Divide

Jed Pressgrove  |  Government Technology

From metropolitan areas in the western US to the rural counties of the Northeast, public school districts that have closed their doors must educate students who have unequal access to digital learning means.  Austin Beutner, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said his district continues to reach its 700,000-plus students through one of two approaches or a combination of both. The first approach involves the digital learning environment/platform Schoology. This method, while the standard for the district, can’t help certain students. About one-quarter of the student body lacks Internet access at home, and the district is roughly one-third short of having enough devices for every student. “It identifies a real challenge in education with sufficient funding,” Beutner said, before adding, “I wish we were funded like Stanford University is.” The second approach is a new partnership with PBS SoCal and KCET that will allow students to consume age-group-specific educational content on the air, regardless of broadband access. PBS is working to “deliver a satellite feed that other public media stations can use,” according to a press release. “It’s an open source,” Beutner said. “We are offering it to other districts in California, and many are adopting.” 

In Carroll County, a rural area of New Hampshire, a lot of virtual learning will be “asynchronous” due to connectivity issues across the state, said Meredith Nadeau, superintendent of schools for School Administrative Unit #13, which encompasses three small districts. “The digital divide is very evident in places like ours,” Nadeau said. “I hope that the future of our children isn’t determined by their geography and that we find out a way to provide that access to our children regardless of where they live.” 

Rural communities' digital deserts cripple tele-education during coronavirus outbreak

Ivan Pereira  |  ABC

Rural communities with poor to little broadband Internet access are stuck in digital deserts with no way to ride out the situation, according to digital accessibility activists. Tim Marema, the editor of The Daily Yonder, said the years of lagging behind broadband infrastructure construction in places like Appalachia make it tougher to come up with solutions to those barriers during the outbreak. "You can’t close the digital gap in a few months," said Marema. While the Federal Communications Commission and internet providers have put in temporary fixes, such as removing data caps, increasing cellphone tower range and free access to low-income users, Marema and other activists say those solutions won’t go far enough in the next few weeks.

Community Use of E-Rate-Supported Wi-Fi is Permitted During Closures

Public Notice  |  Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau reminds schools and libraries that are closed due to the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak that they are permitted to allow the general public to use E-Rate-supported Wi-Fi networks while on the school’s campus or library property. Specifically, libraries may offer access to E-Rate funded services on their premises as well as services that are “integral, immediate and proximate to the provision of library services to library patrons”—and because the mission to serve the public is ongoing, libraries are permitted to allow the public to access E-Rate funded services even when they are closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic. Similarly, closed schools may allow access to E-Rate funded services “to community members who access the Internet while on a school’s campus” so long as they do not charge for the use of the service. The bureau leaves it to individual schools and libraries to establish their own policies regarding use of their Wi-Fi networks during closures, including hours of use. 

Verizon Again Tweaks Plans in Response to COVID-19 Crisis

Press Release  |  Verizon

For those residential and small business wireless customers whose economic circumstances have been impacted due to the coronavirus, Verizon is waiving overage charges in addition to our Keep Americans Connected pledge to not terminate service and waive late fees. We’re also offering new internet options for low-income households and adding 15GB of 4G LTE data to consumer and small business plans automatically. Verizon announced plans for a discount program on Fios broadband plans for qualified new low-income customers and two months waived service charges for current Verizon customers that are part of the Lifeline discount program. To help existing Lifeline customers, Verizon will waive the next two billing cycles of Lifeline-qualified home service charges across both home broadband and home voice. To be eligible, you must have a Lifeline discount on a broadband or home voice line of service as of March 20, 2020.

In addition, on April 3, Verizon is making a new broadband discount program available to new Fios Internet customers who qualify through the Lifeline program. Customers may select any Verizon Fios speed in the Mix & Match plans and receive a $20 discount per month. That means new customers can get Fios Home Internet 200/200Mbps service for just $19.99/mo, with Disney+ for one year and the first two months of their router rental charge waived. Customers will also qualify for any additional promotions available for new Fios Home Internet subscribers. As part of this new program, eligible new customers can receive:

  • $20 off any Fios Home Internet Mix & Match plan, as reflected below with discounts applied:
    • 200/200 Mbps for $19.99/mo
    • 400/400 Mbps for $39.99/mo
    • Gigabit Connection for $59.99/mo (includes Fios router)
  • Router rental charge waived for 60 days as part of the Verizon COVID-19 response (customers may also choose to buy or bring their own router).
  • One year of Disney+ on us.
  • Any additional in-market offers for new Fios customers at time of purchase, including gift cards, content or equipment.
  • Mobile + Home Rewards benefits: customers with Verizon postpaid mobile service can enroll through Verizon Up for additional benefits and discounts.

From March 25 through April 30, wireless consumer and small business customers will see an additional 15GB of data added to their plan for no additional charge. New consumer and business customers can also take advantage of this additional data.

FCC Commissioner Carr Praises Internet Providers' New Plans for Low-Income, Student Access

Press Release  |  

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr praised America’s Internet service providers for creating or expanding over the last week access plans tailored to keeping students and others in low-income households online and connected. On March 23, Verizon announced a new high-speed Internet access program for low-income households, with the first two months of this Fios wireline service effectively free and other fees waived. The company also announced free wired service for all of its Lifeline customers for two months. Windstream also announced the creation of a new offering for low-income customers that includes two months of free service. Altice, AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Mediacom, and TDS have all expanded low-income programs through new eligibility, reduced prices, increased speeds, waiving fees for two months, or targeting K-12 households, depending on the provider.

“This is the private sector stepping up and extending the reach of the FCC’s own low-income initiatives. Over the past week, we have been in close communication with America’s Internet providers because we are all in this together. I want to commend them for how quickly they have moved to ensure that Americans—and low-income consumers in particular—stay connected. Internet providers understand that low-income households now more than ever need access to fast Internet to keep working and learning. Creating and enhancing plans for those most in need is caring for our communities and deserves  our praise,” said Commissioner Carr. “I’m grateful to our partners in the private sector who have worked with us on so many of these plans. Their leadership and continued quality service will keep kids connected and help all of us beat this virus.”

Over 250 Groups Seek More Expansive Lifeline Response from FCC

John Eggerton  |  Multichannel News

Some 250 groups, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Benton Insitute for Broadband & Society, have gotten together to tell the Federal Communications Commission it needs to take further actions to help low-income residents stay connected during the coronavirus crisis. 

In an order released March 17, the FCC waived the program's re-certification and re-verification requirements for 60 days, which has become something of a standard for the suspension of regular processes. It also suspended for those 60 days the requirement that participating carriers' representatives register with the Universal Service Fund, which implements the Lifeline subsidy. But the groups signaled it was now time for larger strides. Specifically, they want the FCC to: 

  • Immediately prohibit disconnections of Lifeline consumers. The groups suggest the prohibition last 120 days, while the typical period ISPs are setting for various waivers and price breaks is currently 60 days
  • Within no more than one week, require Lifeline providers to offer unlimited voice minutes and unlimited texting and commensurate voice-only financial support [they also want the FCC to boost the subsidy to cover the extra minutes
  • Within no more than 21 days, create an emergency Lifeline broadband benefit. Suggest $50 per month when the 60-day ISP offer of free service ends
  • No waiting periods for service or prohibitions on service to consumers who have not paid past bills. The FCC should waive the obligation that providers be eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs).

Keeping Connected Amid Crisis

Research  |  Free Press

A call to Congress to allocate up to $100 billion in subsidies, rebates and tax relief targeted toward broadband that would benefit people, not just companies. The money would fund a mix of emergency aid to get and keep people connected during the coming weeks of quarantine and increased reliance on internet access, along with broadband-affordability support for the coming months and years as the economy begins to recover from the effects of the pandemic. The plan also calls for funding to help finish the job on broadband deployment in rural and unserved areas, both to stimulate the economy in these regions and to build infrastructure to prepare for future crises. Beyond laying out congressional spending and Federal Communications Commission actions, the plan commends steps some internet service providers have already taken and calls on other carriers to emulate these measures. The proposal asks those that have offered discounts and breaks to follow through on them without any strings attached. And the report notes that the FCC wouldn’t have to rely solely on companies’ pledges, promises and voluntary efforts if the agency hadn’t surrendered the authority to regulate essential broadband internet-access services. Proposals include:

  • Emergency Federal funding for the FCC’s Lifeline Program
  • Emergency Eligible Telecommunications Carrier Waivers for Existing Form 477 Filers
  • Public Awareness Campaign Promoting Lifeline
  • Promoting Easier Lifeline Sign-Ups Online, At Home, and Through Other Social Services
  • Medium-Term Supply- and Demand-Side Stimulus to Help Get and Keep People Connected
  • Lifeline Broadband Vouchers
  • Congress Should Create and Fund a standalone “e-Rate@Home” Program
  • Helping HotSpots
  • Every Child Online Tax Deduction
  • Learning@Home Child Care Tax Credit
  • Matching Grants for States to Expand Existing Low-income Programs
  • Broadband Deployment Fund
  • “Cash for e-Clunkers”
  • Congress Should Immediately Pre-empt all State Anti-Municipal Broadband Prohibitions

 

 

Getting internet access to everyone during a pandemic is not an easy job

  |  Marketplace

A Q&A with Chris Mitchell, director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Community Broadband Networks Initiative. 

Christopher Mitchell: There’s a lot of people who are signing up for service who didn’t have it before, or maybe they’re going to a better provider. We’re seeing in areas that have one or more cases of the virus that some of the [internet service providers] are seeing record sign-ups, in some cases twice the previous record of a daily number of new customers. That, unfortunately, means that we need ISPs to have protocols for connecting people, because the number of service providers have actually stopped going into people’s homes and doing new connections while they figure out how to handle this. We will need to find a way in which we can do new connections, because I think this connectivity is just going to become more and more important.

Molly Wood: So you’re saying it is literally spurring people who had not had broadband access before to sign up? But that they might still just be waiting until this is over — whenever that is — for it to be installed?

Mitchell: Yes, that appears to be the case. I think this is even more important, because many ISPs — from the biggest companies to small, local companies — are finding ways of doing 60-day or 90-day free periods for low-income families to get signed up. I think that’s really important for families that right now might be having to leave their home in order to go to a community Wi-Fi spot. We don’t want people to leave the home unless it’s essential, so if we can get people connected in the home, that would be the ideal situation.

Chairman Pai's Response to Sen Manchin Regarding Mobility Fund Phase II

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai  |  Letter  |  Federal Communications Commission

On Feb 23, 2020, Sen Joe Manchin (D-WV) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to urge him to "revise the aggressive timeline outline for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and postpone the initial auction until after the eligibility maps can be challenged and verified." Sen Manchin also wrote Chairman Pai on Dec 3, 2019 to describe specific examples in West Virginia of unreliable broadband service.

On March 9, Chairman Pai responded by writing, "As you know, I am well aware of the shortcomings of current broadband maps; Commission staff are hard at work implementing the precise, granular broadband maps under the Commission’s Digital Opportunity Data Collection adopted last August. The Digital Opportunity Data Collection will incorporate feedback from state, local, and Tribal governments, and from consumers on the ground. That’s why the Commission has allocated at least $4.4 billion (plus any funds remaining as a result of competitive bidding in Phase I) for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase II auction, which will use the new broadband maps to target those areas located in partially served census blocks. But there is simpiy no excuse for the Commission to wait to deploy broadband to rural Americans we know for a fact are unserved. It would be like refusing to provide medical treatment to people that we know are sick until we identify every single person in the country suffering from that same illness." 

Regarding the Dec letter, Chairman Pai responded by saying that the FCC now requires universal service funding recipients to report the specific locations where they offer high-speed broadband. Also, the FCC is setting up the Digital Opportunity Data Collection to create a process for public input on the accuracy of service providers' broadband maps via a crowd-sourcing portal. 

5G Won't Help Rural Americans Shelter in Place

Tara Lachapelle  |  Op-Ed  |  Bloomberg

While the US government and telecommunications industry have been engrossed in the race to 5G, much of the country is still in a slow crawl to regular home internet service. It’s a mistake with economic consequences, and unfortunately the coronavirus pandemic could provide the harshest evidence of that.   “Carriers and the FCC are so obsessed with the next thing (5G), they’ve not ensured that everyone who needs access to the network can get it or afford it,” said Benton senior fellow and public advocate Gigi Sohn. Even with 5G, more densely populated areas are being prioritized, where there are more structures upon which to affix the boxes that serve as mini cellular towers. Delivering 5G to smaller towns is more costly and cumbersome relative to the amount of customers that would be served, which means there’s little incentive to build there.

[Tara Lachapelle is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist]

T-Mobile’s budget $15 Connect plan will launch on March 25th

Monica Chin  |  Vox

T-Mobile will launch its budget Connect plan on March 25th. The prepaid package will deliver unlimited talk and text as well as 2GB of data for $15 per month (or 5GB for $25). The carrier is launching the deal early; it was originally intended to launch after its pending merger with Sprint finalized. As the novel coronavirus pandemic forces businesses to shutter, T-Mobile claims Connect is ideal for Americans who are struggling financially. “Right now, having a reliable, low-cost connection is absolutely crucial for Americans, and with many facing financial strain, time is of the essence,” wrote CEO John Legere. “We knew we couldn’t wait for the merger to finalize to launch T-Mobile Connect, our lowest priced smartphone plan, so we’re rolling out ahead of schedule.”

ITU Guidelines for national emergency telecommunication plans

In the face of the global coronavirus crisis, as in any other emergency, the speed and efficiency of our response is proportional to the level of preparedness. To help countries better manage disaster response activities at a time when the frequency, intensity and human and economic impact of disasters is on the rise worldwide, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) launches new guidelines for the development and implementation of National Emergency Telecommunication Plans. These guidelines will assist national authorities and policymakers in developing policies and regulations that can ensure the continued use of telecommunication networks and services before, during and after a disaster.

A national emergency telecommunication plan sets out a strategy to enable and ensure communication availability during the phases of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery by promoting coordination and engagement across all levels of government, humanitarian agencies, service providers and communities at risk.

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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.


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