In 2020, as schools across the globe pivoted to remote learning, the lack of internet access in rural areas filled headlines. However, pervasive connectivity issues in urban settings have shed light on a problem that began long before the pandemic — digital equity. As remote learning continued through the pandemic, Director of IT at Gary (IN) Community School Corp Darrell Riddell began receiving complaints about connectivity. As soon as Mayor Jerome Prince and his administration learned the city would be receiving $80.3 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, addressing Gary's digital equity issue became a top priority. In February 2022, a Smart Cities Consortium was put together consisting of representatives from Gary, Indiana University Northwest, Gary School Corp and several major internet providers. To kick things off, the team will work with a service provider to get free Wi-Fi in six city parks, one in each district. The city hopes to complete the project by the end of September 2022. The Gary City Council has also approved a plan allocating $5 million of ARPA funds towards a digital equity initiative. The funding will help the team assess the issue, then they will go after more federal funding. The Gary School Corp also recently received an Emergency Connectivity Fund grant of $2 million. Riddell said the money will go towards replacing all of the student's Chromebooks and iPads before fall 2022.
Thursday, March 24, 2022
Headlines Daily Digest
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Guidebook: Broadband
Don't Miss:
FCC Announces Third Application Window, Emergency Connectivity Fund Commitments
Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson weighs in on antitrust, Section 230
Gary, Indiana, launches broadband initiative to bridge digital divide
Digital Inclusion
State/Local
Health
Platforms/Social Media
Devices
Kids & Media
Policymakers
Company News
Stories From Abroad
Digital Inclusion
The Federal Communications Commission announced that it is opening a third application filing window to award at least $1 billion in Emergency Connectivity Fund support. The third application filing window will open on April 28, 2022 and close on May 13, 2022. During this third application filing window, eligible schools and libraries can submit requests for funding to purchase eligible equipment and services between July 1, 2022, and December 31, 2023. Given past demand, the third application filing window will likely be the last opportunity for schools and libraries to request funding before the remaining Emergency Connectivity Funds are exhausted. The most recent funding round committed nearly $68 million to support over 140 schools and 25 libraries across the country, including for students in Alaska, Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, and Puerto Rico. This round of funding commitments includes $49 million in commitments from Window 1 applications and $19 million in commitments from Window 2 applications. More details about which schools and libraries have received funding commitments can be found here. Additional information on the third application filing window can be found here.
Comcast said that it will spend nearly $33 million to extend its fiber network in two communities in Oregon and Utah, a move that is expected to bring about 23,000 additional homes and businesses under the Xfinity service umbrella. In Utah, Comcast said it will expand service to more than 18,000 homes and businesses in Eagle Mountain City (UT) over the next four years. The cost of the project will be about $22 million and will not use any public funds. “Giving our residents another choice for cable and internet services improves the quality of life for our residents,” Service is expected to become available to parts of the community beginning in early 2023 and will include cable, mobile and broadband services. Broadband speeds will range from its $9.95 per month Internet Essentials offering to its ultra-high-speed 1 Gigabit per second service. Businesses in the area also will be able to take advantage of Comcast Ethernet, internet, advanced voice and video services, WiFi and managed enterprise solutions as a result of the expansion. In Oregon, Comcast said it plans to expand its network to about 5,000 homes and businesses in Silverton (OR). The $10.6 million project will allow residents to access Xfinity residential and commercial services. Comcast said over the past three years it has invested more than $500 million in Oregon to improve the network, support the community, and ensure residents, students and businesses remain connected to the internet during the pandemic. The Silverton expansion is part of a broader plan to bring Comcast’s network to more Oregonians.
Senate Democrats likely won’t be setting up floor votes this week on President Biden’s long-pending Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission nominees, according to Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA). “We’re missing a few people,” she said, citing the absence of Sen Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) due to COVID-19, as well as a few other Democrats. FCC nominee Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] and FTC nominee Alvaro Bedoya are key to Democratic majorities at both agencies, and their confirmations would allow Biden’s FCC and FTC chiefs to pursue their long-deferred progressive agendas. But every Democratic vote may be needed to overcome GOP pushback. “It’s all about who shows up,” Cantwell said.
President Biden's Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson weighs in on antitrust and Section 230
President Biden's Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson hinted she may be open to a more expansive reading of antitrust laws during her confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 23. In response to a question from Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jackson said she believes “antitrust laws protect competition and, as you said, therefore protect consumers and competitors and the economy as a whole.” By claiming US antitrust law also protects competitors from being crushed by their biggest rivals, Jackson may be signaling support for a more expansive view of antimonopoly enforcement. (It’s also worth noting Jackson is close friends with another antitrust hawk, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter.) Jackson also appeared to pour cold water on ongoing discussions by lawmakers — mostly Republicans — to condition the protections afforded to tech platforms under the liability shield known as Section 230 on their adherence to viewpoint neutrality. Such a move would require platforms to avoid labeling, throttling or removing content due to its political bent. In a response to a question from Sen Mike Lee (R-UT) that raised that possibility, Jackson called it “generally impermissible,” under the First Amendment, for the government to regulate speech “along viewpoint lines.”
Company News
Cable One joint venture Clearwave wants to hit 500 thousand rural homes with fiber by 2027
Clearwave Fiber, a joint venture formed by operator Cable One and a handful of partners in January 2022, is looking to make a big impact in small towns, targeting fiber rollouts to half a million rural locations by 2027. It is mostly aiming for organic growth but also has its eye out for strategic acquisitions and in fact already struck a deal to buy a small Kansas-based fiber provider, CEO Byron Cantrall said. According to Cantrall, Clearwave plans to hit its expansion goal through a 70/30 mix of densification in existing markets and edge-outs to greenfield areas outside its current footprint. The former will include work in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and South Carolina, while the latter could see it reach into parts of Arkansas, Tennessee and Indiana. As it grows its fiber footprint, Cantrall said Clearwave is expecting penetration rates to reach around 20 percent after 12 months. But that number could be much, much higher. “We think that the communities – because of how unserved these communities are the take rate will be much greater than that,” he said. Right now it’s offering plans ranging from 50 Mbps to 1 Gbps, but Cantrall said it is looking to move into multi-gig territory sometime in the future.
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 Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2022. Redistribution of this email publication — both internally and externally — is encouraged if it includes this message. For subscribe/unsubscribe info email: headlines AT benton DOT org
Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
1041 Ridge Rd, Unit 214
Wilmette, IL 60091
847-328-3040
headlines AT benton DOT org
Share this edition:
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society All Rights Reserved © 2022