The Federal Communications Commission's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau seeks to gain a better understanding of end-to-end Wireless Emergency Alerts performance. The bureau seeks to partner with alert originators to conduct localized, end-to-end WEA performance tests to be conducted in the third quarter of 2022. These tests will be designed to measure WEA’s capabilities with enhanced WEA geo-targeting enabled. The bureau will work with the selected alert originator(s) to define the parameters of the test and the roles and responsibilities of test developers and participants. The bureau seeks testing partners that represent the diverse environments where WEAs are sent (i.e., dense urban, urban, suburban and rural areas). The bureau will select alert originators based on criteria that include:

1. The alert originator’s ability to organize test participants that are customers of the several Participating Commercial Mobile Service (CMS) Provider that serve their jurisdiction;
2. The alert originator’s ability to organize test participants from geographically diverse locations;
3. The alert originator’s ability to conduct a public outreach campaign that ensures public awareness about a WEA test;
4. The alert originator’s expertise in collecting data.

Local governments all over the country are choosing internet service provider (ISP) partners and making grants from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to help bring better broadband. This blog is a warning to handle the awards of such monies in a way as to be safe from challenges from ISPs you don’t choose to fund. The reason for issuing this warning is that ISPs that don’t get funded can ask to see all of the records that are part of the process of choosing a partner and can sue a local government if they don’t believe the review and award process gave them a fair chance to win the awards. It’s important to remember that although ARPA money came to local governments from a federal grant program, this is still local government money, and the process of spending the money is subject to at least some portion of government procurement rules and certainly is subject to all rules having to do with openness and transparency of records. I strongly advise local governments to include an attorney and perhaps a trusted consultant who has been through this before in the process. A selection committee needs to get the speech about being fair, open, and transparent and warned not to create written records that are derogatory to any of the ISPs in the process. Governments have a legal obligation to be fair and aboveboard when choosing anybody who will receive public funding. I know that picking ISP partners feels like it is an extraordinary thing, but it is not somehow outside the normal government procurement processes.

[Doug Dawson is President at CCG Consulting.]

Indiana granted an additional $189 million on a third round of projects to extend broadband service to rural areas of the state. The money will fund 154 projects to provide broadband infrastructure to more than 52,900 homes and commercial locations in 80 counties. The funding comes as part of the Next Level Broadband Grant Program, which is billed as the largest single state investment in broadband. Two previous rounds of funding awarded $268 million for broadband infrastructure for more than 74,800 homes and commercial locations. The program began in 2018. At the completion of the current round of projects, broadband access will have been improved in 83 of Indiana’s 92 counties. The $189 million awarded was distributed among 35 service providers, who also contributed more than $239 million in matching funds, bringing the total investment to $429 million. Ten of the grant recipients are rural electric maintenance cooperatives (REMCs), which are member-owned nonprofit utility providers 

The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) announced the first of its Broadband Community Profiles designed to uncover the economic and societal impact that fiber broadband is having on rural communities across North America. The research, conducted by Futuriom Research, shows that Douglas County (OR) served by internet service provider Douglas Fast Net (DFN), has successfully leveraged fiber broadband to create jobs, improve the quality of living, invest in its future, and even fight forest fires all while creating approximately $28 million in revenue or savings each year. To date, DFN has deployed 2,799 miles of fiber in Douglas County to over 12,531 subscribers and nearly one-third of the local population. DFN plans to expand its network footprint significantly while offering 10G symmetrical services in the near term. It has spent the last two decades adding to its network through organic growth and acquisition, bringing fiber broadband to more people in its region. Despite economic setbacks in Douglas County, fiber optic facilities have been key to preserving business in the region and have contributed significantly to healthcare, education, and government. While Internet service provider competition ramps up in various parts of Douglas County, DFN’s fiber infrastructure has become a source of revenue, as DFN is able to lease fiber to other carriers, even competitors.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is requesting comments on competition in the mobile application ecosystem.  The data gathered through this process will be used to inform the Biden-Harris Administration’s competition agenda, including, but not limited to, the Department of Commerce’s work developing a report to submit to the Chair of the White House Competition Council regarding the mobile application ecosystem. This study is aimed at examining unique aspects of competition involving apps on mobile phones and tablets. In doing so, the NTIA recognizes that the general mobile ecosystem is comprised of a number of distinct types of entities and interrelated markets. Mobile service providers play a role in a range of relevant aspects, including broadband service and determining which apps are pre-loaded or set as defaults. At the same time, functionality and app distribution are also dependent upon operating systems and app stores, which function as sub-ecosystems. NTIA is seeking to look beyond the general to examine particular environments in which different types of apps and associated businesses operate.

Comments are due on or before 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on May 23, 2022.

Elon Musk has lined up the funding he needs for his proposed takeover of Twitter. In a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on April 21, Musk laid out his plan for the $46.5 billion worth of loans that will allow him to finance the buyout offer made on April 14th. The funding is provided through two debt commitment letters from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, in which the bank commits to offering a series of loans worth $25.5 billion. The remaining $21 billion will be covered by Musk himself. Notably, the filing does not list any equity partners to share the cash burden with Musk. The Tesla CEO already owns a 9 percent stake in Twitter, valued at roughly $2.9 billion. The filing also makes clear that Twitter has not formally responded to Musk’s offer. “The Reporting Person is seeking to negotiate a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Twitter by the Reporting Person,” it reads, “and is prepared to begin such negotiations immediately.” Even with funding secured, taking over Twitter will not be easy. The company’s board of directors recently announced measures to block Musk’s hostile takeover. This maneuver, which is known in the finance world as a “poison pill,” allows certain shareholders to purchase more stock in an attempt to block Musk from holding a stake of over 15 percent, Reuters previously reported.