Tuesday, April 16, 2019
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A France in Turmoil Weeps for a Symbol of Paris’s Enduring Identity
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Google will pay Louisville millions to fix roads after failed Fiber experiment
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It seems only appropriate to take this opportunity to discuss my involvement in just some of the substantive Federal Communications Commission issues that NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association and its members have cared deeply about:
- I led the 2016 rate-of-return reform item that allowed Universal Service Fund support for standalone broadband offerings;
- I championed the creation of a truly voluntary cost model for rate-of-return providers, better known as A-CAM, and secured its adoption at the FCC;
- I fought and continue to fight to preserve the right of rate-of-return carriers to remain on legacy support and not be forced to the model;
- I led the FCC’s efforts to adopt the so-called “punch list” of rate-of-return reform ideas and fixes that painstakingly took so long to approve;
- I helped craft and implement the Alaska Plan for increased broadband buildout in the toughest terrain in our great nation;
- I demanded that extra rate-of-return tribal support go to only those providers that actually need it—without exceptions in the absence of just cause—as every dollar spent inefficiently or unnecessarily comes at the expense of another deserving carrier and their customers;
- When faced with evidence of the need for an expanded rate-of-return budget, I was at the forefront of endorsing such action; and
- I have advocated for and supported numerous efforts to strike or reduce unnecessary and burdensome FCC regulations imposed on your businesses – with more to come.
Google has agreed to pay the Louisville Metro Government $3.84 million over the next 20 months to repair the damage caused to the city by its ill-fated Google Fiber service. The money will be used by local authorities to remove the company’s infrastructure from the city’s roads and to repave areas where needed after the service ceased operation April 15. ”Infrastructure in neighborhoods and public properties affected by Google Fiber will look as good or better than they did before the company began construction,” according to Louisville Metro’s Chief of Civic Innovation and Technology Grace Simrall.
The company’s problems in Louisville stem from its decision to lay its cabling just inches beneath the road’s surface, in part because incumbents like AT&T attempted to block Google from sharing its utility poles. Unfortunately, this “shallow trenching” method meant that the cabling became exposed and damaged over time, and eventually Google Fiber decided to end the service rather than have to rebuild the entire network.
Recently, Tennessee made a smart investment in its digital future when the state awarded $14.8 million in funding to local broadband projects. This funding is a welcome recognition that local networks are really good at connecting Tennesseans to high-quality, reliable, affordable internet access. But Tennessee can do more. The state could expand next-generation internet access to an even greater number of households without spending a dollar by allowing municipal fiber optic networks to expand to areas that want their service. While Tennessee law allows cities and towns to offer broadband if they have a municipal electric utility, the networks are not permitted to expand service beyond their electric footprint. This law prevents networks from offering high-quality, affordable service to neighboring communities that want and need broadband and stifles collaborative, regional development. Scrapping this restriction and allowing successful networks to expand would connect more people to broadband, all without the state spending a dollar.
[Deb Socia is the executive director of Next Century Cities]
In some ways, the world’s largest social network is stronger than ever, with record revenue of $55.8 billion in 2018. But Facebook has also never been more threatened. Here are some dangers that could knock it down.
US Antitrust Regulation: In March, Democratic presidential candidate Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) proposed severing Instagram and WhatsApp from Facebook, joining the growing chorus of people who want to chop the company down to size. Even US attorney general William Barr has hinted at probing tech’s “huge behemoths.” But for now, antitrust talk remains talk—much of it posted to Facebook.
Federal Privacy Crackdowns: Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission are negotiating a settlement over whether the company’s conduct, including with Cambridge Analytica, violated a 2011 consent decree regarding user privacy. Federal prosecutors have also begun a criminal investigation into Facebook’s data-sharing deals with other technology companies.
European Regulators: While America debates whether to take aim at Facebook, Europe swings axes. In 2018, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation forced Facebook to allow users to access and delete more of their data. Then this February, Germany ordered the company to stop harvesting web-browsing data without users’ consent, effectively outlawing much of the company’s ad business.
User Exodus: Although a fifth of the globe uses Facebook every day, the number of adult users in the US has largely stagnated. The decline is even more precipitous among teenagers. (Granted, many of them are switching to Instagram.) But network effects are powerful things: People swarmed to Facebook because everyone else was there; they might also swarm for the exits.
The Trump 2020 campaign is spending nearly half (44%) of its Facebook ad budget to target users who are over 65 years old, as opposed to Democratic candidates who are only spending 27% of their budget on that demographic. Other data points pulled from the Facebook ad archive show that the President is using most of those ads targeted towards older people to talk about immigration. President Donald Trump is using nativist language around immigrants in 54% of his ads, according to Bully Pulpit Interactive. So far Democrats have not responded in kind on the topic of immigration and are focused on fundraising and other policy issues.
Remarks Of Chairman Pai's Public Safety Legal Advisor, Zenji Nakazawa, At US-Caribbean Resilience Partnership Event
I am honored to be here on behalf of the Federal Communications Commission. Chairman Pai extends his warmest appreciation to our regulatory friends in the Caribbean. And he is excited to support the launch of the US-Caribbean Resilience Partnership. In these brief remarks, I’d like to talk about three topics: (1) the FCC’s role in disaster preparedness; (2) a few key lessons learned from the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season; and (3) what the FCC can do to support a working group for the US-Caribbean Resilience Partnership
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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