Monday, April 27, 2020
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A new chance to close the digital divide
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The “digital divide” in the accessibility of telecommunications services remains far too wide — and that current needs give urgency to closing it. A lack of sufficient Internet access is very likely keeping 12 million students from doing distance learning while their schools are closed.And the more that low-income communities are dependent on temporary grace from telecom providers, the more they have to lose when this is all over. New ideas are clearly required. For one thing, while many programs to address the digital divide understandably are focused on extending broadband service to rural places where it doesn’t exist at all, more solutions are also needed for urban areas. Many people who live in neighborhoods where high-speed Internet is available do not subscribe because of the associated costs. One answer could be to expand the Lifeline program, which provides subsidies of $9.25 per month for either fixed-line broadband at home or a wireless phone plan. Jon Sallet, a senior fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, says that 135 percent cutoff should be higher — as it is for other federal anti-poverty programs — given the increasing importance of broadband for economic development and public health.
For years, broadband researchers found that a sizable percentage of people who didn’t sign up for broadband simply didn’t see enough value in it. But jobs, health care, education, and many other daily needs and opportunities increasingly require fast connections from devices other than smartphones — and the COVID-19 outbreak will probably accelerate these trends. Now we’ll have to work harder not to leave anyone behind.
Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai demanding an extension on the comment period for the issues that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals recently remanded in the commission’s net neutrality repeal. Local governments in California and New York requested a 60-day extension of the comment period, yet the commission refused to give these first responders more time while they are fighting on the frontlines of a global pandemic. “While that comment period closed on April 20, 2020, we understand that multiple local governments from our states asked for, yet were denied, a further 60-day extension of the comment period given that they are currently fully engaged in the response to the crisis created by the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic. We ask you to reconsider this position and further extend the comment period so that the public safety agencies in these localities, important stakeholders in the remanded issues, can provide their expertise and insight to the Commission,” the senators wrote.
While I am pleased that we continue to rely on a realistic and text-based reading of section 706, I wish we would have extended that pragmatism to our evaluation framework. It’s obvious that mobile and fixed broadband are increasingly converging into a single market, and I am dismayed that for yet another year, we have opted to rehash our tired, siloed approach rather than pursue a technology-neutral analysis. Especially given recent calls for the FCC to support wireless hotspots to improve access for distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, including to provide two-way video-based applications, it does seem that there’s broad recognition of the services’ substitutability, even among the most die-hard proponents of universal fiber-to-the-home. And, that’s not to mention the characteristics of 5G service, which obliterate any basis for maintaining our outdated approach.... I would have preferred to include data from the satellite industry in our main report, rather than relegate it to the appendices. While I appreciate that satellite providers face capacity constraints, limited capacity is by no means unique to satellite technology. Here, again, I would have preferred to take a technology-neutral approach rather than engage in a somewhat arbitrary line-drawing process.
The momentum behind America’s 5G leadership is now unmistakable. As this report shows, we have turned the page on the failed broadband policies of the previous administration, and the private sector has responded. America’s broadband builders are now trenching conduit, pulling fiber, and installing new high-speed cell sites at an unprecedented clip. While we are far from the finish line, the significant progress we’re making in closing the digital divide is welcome news....Results like these should put the partisan effort to seize greater government control of the Internet in the rear view window. Indeed, it is more clear than ever before that the prior FCC’s years-long effort to apply heavy-handed utility-style regulation to the Internet elevated politics over policy. It slowed down the important work needed to close the digital divide and held back competition. As the current pandemic highlights, we should all come together around policies that will encourage the accelerated buildout of high-speed networks in every community in this country.
This report is baffling. We are in the middle of a pandemic. So much of modern life has migrated online. As a result, it has become painfully clear there are too many people in the United States who lack access to broadband. In fact, if this crisis has revealed anything, it is the hard truth that the digital divide is very real and very big. But you’ll find no evidence acknowledging that in today’s Broadband Progress Report from the Federal Communications Commission. Instead, you’ll find a glowing assessment that all is well. According to this rosy report the nation’s broadband efforts are all good. They are proceeding in a reasonable and timely fashion and they are reaching all Americans. This is just not right....Crises can reveal a lot. This pandemic has demonstrated conclusively that broadband is no longer nice-to-have. It’s need-to-have. What we also need is an honest accounting from the FCC about the state of broadband in this country. Because when we get to the other side of this crisis, we need to rebuild our economy and closing the digital divide is the right place to start. I wish that this report could contribute to that effort. I wish it could provide accurate data to inform our action. I wish it could provide a meaningful template for broadband for all. But it does not. I dissent.
The FCC’s limited progress on new broadband maps has left the Commission without highquality, nationwide data on the deployment of Advanced Telecommunications Capability. It is a shame that we are once again relying on Form 477 data, with all its inaccuracies. At this point, Form 477’s problems are well documented, acknowledged throughout the telecommunications industry, and recognized by bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress. And they are recounted in the 2018 and 2019 iterations of this report. We are all well versed in Form 477’s flaws. The fact that this report must rely on the unreliable should be reflected in its conclusions. I cannot approve the report’s confident declaration that this data constitutes “compelling evidence” that Advanced Telecommunications Capability is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis. We do not have a strong basis for that conclusion, and we should say so. I therefore respectfully dissent.
As a result of COVID-19, over 300,000 University System of Georgia students have returned home to finish their courses online. Now more than ever, I have realized the great digital divide in our state, and because of it, high-achieving students, particularly in rural Georgia, are suffering immensely. It is imperative that we all seek to use the anti-deficit perspective for the sake of students. While 1.6 million Georgians do not have reliable access to the Internet and funding for rural broadband is still based upon flawed mapping by the Federal Communications Commission, we must realize that every student does not have the means to succeed academically. A system that instructs students to “reach higher” without ensuring all students have sufficient access to the necessary resources is utterly broken. It is analogous to telling students to climb without offering a ladder first. Now is a critical moment for our state. Our failure to act could have detrimental consequences, and I fear that it will only worsen disparities, especially in rural areas. We have a choice. Will we create a system that sets Georgians up for success, or will we continue to allow privilege to perpetuate inequity, especially in the rural parts of our state?
[A native of Baxley, Georgia, Briana Hayes is a third-year student at the University of Georgia. She is health promotion major and plans on attending law school after graduating. Among her leadership roles at UGA, Briana has founded an organization for rural students called RISE.]
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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