Thursday, April 16, 2020
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The Institute of Museum and Library Services announced measures to award the first $30 million of $50 million appropriated to the agency in the CARES Act. The $30 million in the funding phase will be distributed to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the US territories, and the Freely Associated States based on population. The agency is allocating these grants through its most significant in-place funding vehicle for all states and territories, State Library Administrative Agencies (SLAAs), who are encouraged to use all available mechanisms to reach museum and tribal partners, as well as traditionally eligible libraries. These funds are in addition to previously announced measures to support the urgent needs of museums, libraries, their staff, and the communities they serve. On April 6, IMLS authorized new flexibilities for its nearly 1,300 open awards in response to the impact of COVID-19.
A bill to ensure rural and distressed communities can more readily use Economic Development Administration (EDA) grants to develop high-speed broadband access has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) and Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Ranking Member John Katko (R-NY). The Eliminating Barriers to Rural Internet Development Grant Eligibility (E-BRIDGE) Act (H.R. 6491) removes hurdles for broadband projects under EDA grants (including difficult last-mile efforts that often delay rural broadband deployment), ensures that local communities can partner with the private sector in carrying out broadband projects, and gives communities more flexibility in complying with their funding match requirements.
Rep Lawrence, Sens Stabenow and Peters Lead Bicameral Letter to Congressional Leadership on Broadband Access Amid Outbreak
The entire Democratic Michigan delegation urged Congressional Leadership to prioritize and provide funding for essential broadband programs to ensure all Americans, especially those most in need, have access to high-speed internet in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Congress considers priorities in the next COVID-19 relief package, the Members of Congress urged the inclusion of robust funding for the following provisions/programs to ensure Americans across the country have access to high-speed internet:
- FCC’s Lifeline Program- The Lifeline program provides discounted phone and data service for qualifying low-income consumers to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to stay connected with work, their families, and the community;
- FCC’s E-Rate Educational Connectivity Program- The E-rate program assists schools and libraries in obtaining affordable access to broadband for students and community members who have access to it; and
- Fully Fund Farm Bill Broadband Programs- The 2018 Farm Bill made significant improvements to long-standing USDA Rural Development broadband programs, including provisions creating a grant component, raising speed standards for eligible communities, and incentivizing technology that will meet the future needs of rural communities for decades. Congress should ensure that the Rural Broadband Access Grant, Loan and Loan Guarantee Program is fully implemented and funded at $350 million annually. Furthermore, all other broadband programs funded through the Farm Bill should be funded at authorized levels.
Remarks of FCC Commissioner Starks at Telephone Town Hall with Rep. Clarke on the Role of Technology in the Face of COVID-19
When public health requires social distancing and quarantine, closing the digital divide becomes central to our collective safety and economic security. In particular, we should leverage the Federal Communications Commission’s $8 billion in universal service funding, and focus our efforts on students and vulnerable, struggling Americans. Each week, as millions more Americans apply for unemployment and food assistance programs - - the FCC needs to enhance its Lifeline program, the only federal program with the sole mission of bringing affordable communications to low-income Americans and a critical aspect of our social safety net in times of economic turmoil. This would not be the first time the FCC has expanded Lifeline in a crisis; the George W. Bush-era FCC strengthened its programming as a result of Hurricane Katrina. And we should be partnering with the relevant agencies to make sure people know about this critical program, which most of the people who are eligible for have never heard of. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, 38 million people were eligible but only 7 million enrolled. The FCC must to do more to educate people about Lifeline so it can benefit the ones that need it most. And the time is now.
In times of emergency, no American should go without a connection because of cost. We must do more for struggling families, who already bear too many burdens of this health crisis and its economic fallout.
In a letter to Congressional leadership, over 80 groups urged Congress to provide a low-income broadband benefit as part of the forthcoming Phase 4 COVID-19 package. The groups are seeking $2 to 3 billion per month for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency to support access to broadband that is adequate to meet the needs of multiple people sheltering-in-place while working and learning via video technology simultaneously. To ensure essential communications service, the proposal includes:
- An immediate appropriation of $2 to 3 billion per month for the extent of the crisis and for 30 days following, to support an emergency broadband benefit for all eligible low-income households and the newly unemployed – approximately 60 million households.
- The benefit will offer free service to eligible households paid to their Internet Service Providers (ISPs) at $50 per month to support 100 megabits per second downstream/10 megabits per second upstream and $25 per month to support 25 megabits per second downstream/3 megabits per second upstream. These benefits should be doubled in, and tailored for, tribal areas.
- Households eligible for the benefit would be within 135 percent of the federal poverty guideline, recently laid off, furloughed, applied for or approved for state unemployment insurance, participate in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, free and reduced school lunch, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Federal Public Housing Assistance (FPHA), or the Veterans Pension and Survivors Benefit.
- The ISP would be prohibited from imposing any delay, co-payment, waiting period, or limitations for customers owing arrearages.
- Safeguards and existing low-income program infrastructure at the Federal Communications Commission, streamlined where necessary, should be used to immediately get support to those in need. Specifically, an ISP need not be designated an eligible telecommunications carrier but must comply with appropriate FCC program integrity rules.
Over the past month, healthcare providers from psychiatrists to family physicians have rushed to telemedicine through video conferencing or healthcare apps. Treating homebound patients virtually can soften the blow of an infectious disease outbreak like Covid-19, experts say, by reducing traffic to hospitals and doctor’s offices already struggling with limited resources and higher infection risks. It works the other way, too; telemedicine allows quarantined doctors to work from home. “If we’re talking about social distancing in order to alleviate our healthcare centers, telehealth is going to play a major role,” said Christopher Ali, a University of Virginia media studies associate professor and faculty fellow with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.
But how is telemedicine supposed to work for the tens of millions of Americans who lack reliable, affordable, at-home broadband (the minimum threshold of acceptable upload and download speeds)? Ali says the answer is simple: “Telehealth is impossible without broadband. The two are synonymous.” He and others are sounding the alarm that internet inequity is now a public health crisis, as rural and urban households that lack—or can’t afford—at-home, high-speed internet are being left out of the massive, pandemic-driven shift toward telemedicine.
While COVID-19 has highlighted the deficiencies in broadband availability in the homes of our school-age kids around the country, the absence of a broadband connection for our older adults is equally concerning. Lack of internet access sets the stage for growing isolation and harm to our seniors across the country. Although broadband adoption has increased among those 65 and older in recent years, there is still a significant gap. A 2017 Pew Research revealed that over half of those 65+ have a broadband connection at home, and about 67 percent use the internet. While we can assume that these numbers have increased slightly, indications are that there is still a considerable gap in access and adoption among seniors. The fight against COVID-19 most definitely takes a global village. Now, more than ever, we need more focus on our older community, with programs and assistance to make sure they have access to affordable high-speed broadband. We can’t afford to leave anyone behind – or unconnected.
[Debra Berlyn is the president of Consumer Policy Solutions and is executive director of the Project to Get Older Adults onLine (Project GOAL).
In late Oct 2019, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society released a report that explores how leaders at all levels of government can push toward a more connected future. One of the key findings is that state governments must play a crucial role in expanding Americans’ access to broadband services. The report, Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s, examines ways that policymakers at all levels of government can help expand reliable broadband access to every American by the end of the decade. It notes that achieving this goal is important to improve the lives of individuals and critical to addressing pressing policy priorities. Although the digital divide has been a challenge for decades, the current pandemic reinforces the need for long-term, permanent solutions that connect more Americans to high-speed, reliable internet, a resource that can help them navigate the near term and thrive in the years ahead.
Hopefully, when Congress gets done allocating several trillion dollars simply to keep the economy afloat, we will be able to have another discussion: What should we invest in so we don’t just burden young Americans with a mountain of new debt, but also arm them with the tools to grow out of it and still prosper in the 21st century? These could be the most important and precious dollars we spend, so we need to invest them wisely, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt did in the 1930s by creating the Works Progress Administration and the Rural Electrification Act — giant infrastructure programs that not only helped lift us out of the Depression but also made us more productive to this day. Here are less obvious investments that I’m certain would make America more resilient, more prosperous, healthier and more equal:
- Expanded high-speed internet connectivity everywhere, but particularly in rural America, so more people can participate in the innovation economy.
- Deployment across America of more affordable tools of invention, design and manufacturing — so more people can build more hardware at the points of need and help innovate our way out of this crisis — not just wait to be bailed out or for the next shipment from China.
Let’s create tax, regulatory and funding incentives for every community — but particularly the many underserved rural communities — to install high-speed broadband and fiber to the home. High-speed internet basically enables anyone anywhere to get training for a better job, often at low to no cost, from online universities or YouTube instructional videos. And if you connect them, they will invent.
When it comes to the Internet, the COVID-19 crisis is teaching us that we’re so much better off than we could have been, but not as good as we need to be. COVID-19 is a stress test for many systems in the United States, most critically in our health, government, education, media, retail and financial services sectors. All of them are now depending more than ever on the Internet to serve their users. The current health crisis will likely peak some time this year, but our intensified reliance on digital technology will not. After the crisis, the challenge for policymakers and industry leaders will be to analyze the results of that stress test and take whatever actions they require, including more efforts to close the digital divide. We propose an initiative that combines the best of the admirable 9/11 Commission and the 2010 National Broadband Plan (NBP). The first was a response to a crisis, while the latter delivered responses to avoid a crisis. We need both kinds of inquiries. The new initiative should take what we’ve learned, both from the current crisis and otherwise, and use it to address areas where critical gaps remain:
- Performance gaps -- we’ll need to determine more specifically how the network performed, and if any weak links were found.
- Coverage gaps -- problems remain both in terms of access and adoption.
- Security gaps -- as we move more office work, education, and socializing to the home on a permanent basis, we need to reevaluate network security.
- Utilization gaps -- many industries and government services have not digitized fast enough.
- Informantion gaps -- we need to learn how, in any future crisis, our society can reduce the pollution of misinformation.
[Blair Levin is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and was the Executive Director of the 2010 National Broadband Plan. Larry Downes is the author or co-author of several books on the digital economy.]
Three mid-sized and rural communities are using the internet at faster speeds than ever before, according to smart city nonprofit US Ignite and the National Science Foundation, who shared success stories from the U.S. Ignite’s Smart Gigabit Communities initiative. Eugene (OR), Urbana-Champaign (IL), and regions of rural Utah are all a part of the US Ignite’s Smart Gigabit Communities initiative, which launched in 2017 to improve broadband infrastructure and reliability in rural areas across the country via a partnership with the National Science Foundation. The NSF subsidizes the installation and equipment costs for each community. The communities are using facilities that enable network switching between regional internet service providers, who pay to connect their customers to fiber-optic cables. The infrastructure, which US Ignite calls a “digital town square,” or DTS, ultimately results in faster internet and lower latency for residents and businesses, according to Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce managing director Matt Sayre. The network upgrade in Eugene is carrier-neutral, which means that residents don’t have to pay extra to receive the benefits of faster internet when traffic is exchanged at the DTS. Essentially, the technology connects Eugene’s “islands” of scattered businesses and homes that already have gigabit speed internet to keep internet traffic and data local, rather than having to traverse connections to far-away ISP facilities in Portland or San Francisco.
Explaining non-adoption for Internet service has led to a debate about whether non-adopters place a low value on Internet use or whether the price of connectivity is too high. Survey evidence consistently points to a lack of interest as more important than price, but a new report by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance claims that recent survey evidence points to price as the dominant cause. The conclusion is impermissible. The surveys relied upon in the NDIA Report no longer permit respondents to indicate a lack of interest as the reason for not using the Internet at home, despite this reason being the most frequent response provided in earlier editions of these same surveys. A more thorough analysis of the surveys relied upon by the NDIA Report reveals that non-price factors dominate price as the determining factor for not using the Internet at home. Still, as price is a legitimate factor of adoption, if surveys are to be truly useful for policymaking, then they must abandon the current question seeking explanations for non-adoption and gather data that permit an estimate of price sensitivity.
Some people are already thinking about what the sixth generation of wireless technology will look like. They are envisioning speeds 10 times greater than the fifth generation now beginning to reach consumers, and more bandwidth to handle new data-hogging devices including autonomous cars and unmanned factory equipment. The International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency that coordinates global wireless standards, set up an initiative in 2018 to identify and research the post-5G technologies that are expected to emerge in 2030 and beyond. From Japan to South Korea, China, Finland and the U.S., countries are already vying to get their preferences on the list. So, what kind of technological advances are we talking about?
Frontier filed for bankruptcy to implement a prearranged $10 billion debt-cutting proposal backed by the telephone and internet-service provider’s bondholders. The telecommunications company is the country’s No. 7 broadband provider by subscribers and the No. 4 incumbent telephone company after AT&T, CenturyLink and Verizon Communications, a legacy of the 1984 breakup of the Ma Bell monopoly. Frontier grew quickly over the past two decades by scooping up phone networks that other companies were eager to unload. Executives later shifted their focus to newer fiber-optic networks that could wean the company off its aging copper phone lines. But they struggled to integrate new customers, especially those gained from a costly 2016 deal with Verizon that gave Frontier a wide base of superfast fiber-optic service in California, Florida and Texas. Customers in those states complained of poor service, driving more business to cable providers that gained a bigger share of the broadband market at Frontier’s expense.
Intelsat is seeking backers for a bankruptcy loan that would keep the satellite service in business under Chapter 11 court protection while it’s waiting for billions of dollars in proceeds from a government spectrum auction. A Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing would allow Intelsat to address its $14 billion debt load as federal regulators head toward an auction of C-Band satellite spectrum. Intelsat needs to spend $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion to prepare its spectrum for sale, and it could net up to $4.8 billion for handing over its C-Band by certain deadlines.
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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