Daily Digest 4/30/2020 (Phone and Internet Access for All)

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
Table of Contents

Broadband/Internet/Telecom

Members of Congress, Digital-Rights and Social-Justice Advocates Call for COVID-19 Legislation to Support Phone and Internet Access for All  |  Read below  |  Press Release  |  Free Press
FCC Eases Lifeline Process for Unemployed Americans During Pandemic  |  Read below  |  Public Notice  |  Federal Communications Commission
Trends point to business as unusual  |  Read below  |  Press Release  |  Verizon
ACA Connects Launches COVID-19 Broadband Dashboard  |  Read below  |  Press Release  |  ACA Connects
INCOMPAS Files ‘Communications Marketplace Report’ Comments with FCC  |  Read below  |  Angie Kronenberg, Christopher Shipley, Lindsay Stern  |  Analysis  |  Incompas
Bad WiFi is slowing you down. Fix yours without spending a dime.  |  Washington Post

Wireless/Spectrum

House and Senate Armed Services Committee Leaders Call on FCC to Reverse Ligado 5G Decision, Citing GPS Interference  |  US Senate
AT&T, T-Mobile butt heads with Comcast, Wi-Fi in 5.9 GHz melee  |  Read below  |  Monica Alleven  |  Fierce
Vodafone Taps Access Gateway Function Tech to Help Converge Wireline Broadband with 5G  |  telecompetitor
Qualcomm expects phone shipments to drop by 30 percent next quarter due to COVID-19  |  Vox

Health

FCC Approves Fourth Set Of Covid-19 Telehealth Program Applications  |  Read below  |  Press Release  |  Federal Communications Commission
T-Mobile Donating Nearly 40,000 Phone Chargers to Hospitals Nationwide in Latest COVID-19 Relief Effort  |  T-Mobile

Education

Online Schooling Has a Tech Issue That No Apps Can Fix  |  Read below  |  Natt Garun  |  Vox
Teachers' Unions and Districts Hammer Out New Expectations for Remote Teaching  |  Education Week
7 Big Issues for Unions and Districts in Remote Teaching Agreements  |  Education Week
Will this semester forever alter college? No, but some virtual tools will stick around  |  Hechinger Report

Platforms/Content

COVID-19 has taught us the internet is critical and needs public interest oversight  |  Read below  |  Tom Wheeler  |  Analysis  |  Brookings Institution
Google Meet, Google’s Zoom competitor, is now free for everyone  |  Ars Technica
Trump’s Disinfectant Talk Trips Up Sites’ Vows Against Misinformation  |  New York Times
Trump administration lists some of Amazon's foreign websites as 'notorious' counterfeit markets  |  Politico

Privacy

Prepare for less privacy  |  Axios
Analysis: Americans are wary of the coronavirus tracking apps being produced by big tech  |  Washington Post
A Scramble for Virus Apps That Do No Harm  |  New York Times

Ownership

Sen Warren, Rep Ocasio-Cortez propose halt to big mergers during coronavirus pandemic  |  NBC

Television

New York AG Wants Pay-TV Companies to Refund Subscribers for Missing Sports  |  Broadcasting&Cable
TV sports’ last dance: Sporting events will eventually resume but advertising sponsors may be less eager to return  |  Financial Times
Cable News Sets Ratings Records in April  |  Hollywood Reporter
"It's Good TV": CNN's High-Drama Coverage of the Pandemic Hits Close to Home  |  Hollywood Reporter
The Week the Cameras Stopped: TV in the COVID-19 Era  |  Vanity Fair

Journalism

With Little Hesitation, Struggling News Outlets Accept Federal Aid  |  New York Times
About Seven-in-Ten U.S. Adults Say They Need to Take Breaks From COVID-19 News  |  Pew Research Center
Margaret Sullivan: Trump has played the media like a puppet. We’re getting better — but history will not judge us kindly.  |  Washington Post
Two hedge funds have offered to buy McClatchy. A sale could follow in the next two months — but there are hurdles.  |  Poynter

Government & Communications

The American People Should See Trump’s Coronavirus Briefings in Their Entirety  |  New York Magazine
White House shuffles communications duties as it looks to reopening  |  Politico
Rep Quigley introduces Court Access Aid Pandemic Act, authorizing video, teleconferencing of judicial proceedings duringCOVID-19  |  House of Representatives

Elections

A winning media strategy for President Trump: More one-on-one interviews  |  Washington Post
How a Digital Ad Strategy That Helped Trump Is Being Used Against Him  |  New York Times

Labor

When NY Needed Hospital Space, Film Location Scouts Pitched In  |  New York Times

Company News

Comcast Tops Q1 Earnings Mark  |  Read below  |  Jennifer Maas  |  Wrap, The, Comcast
Facebook Rides Surge in Usage to Strong Growth  |  Wall Street Journal

FCC Reform

FCC Folds Media Bureau's Engineering Division into the Industry Analysis Division  |  Read below  |  Public Notice  |  Federal Communications Commission

Stories From Abroad

How surveillance technology powered South Korea's COVID-19 response  |  Brookings Institution

Life As We Know It Now

Watch my kids, please: Parents hire Zoom babysitters so they can shelter in peace  |  Washington Post
Today's Top Stories

Broadband/Telecom

Members of Congress, Digital-Rights and Social-Justice Advocates Call for COVID-19 Legislation to Support Phone and Internet Access for All

Press Release  |  Free Press

Access Now, Common Sense Media, Consumer Reports, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, Free Press Action, Libraries Without Borders, MediaJustice, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge jointly delivered more than 110,000 petition signatures to the Congress. The petitions call for upcoming rounds of COVID-19 stimulus legislation to ensure that internet and phone services are available to all during the pandemic. “The cost of broadband is so high and the broadband-providers’ policies are so discriminatory that even before the crisis began and millions lost their sources of income, more than one-fifth of households nationwide didn’t have home internet,” reads one of the group’s petitions. “Internet and phone access should be affordable public services — like water and electricity. We demand that you provide the billions of dollars needed to get and keep people connected to broadband and phone services during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis.”

FCC Eases Lifeline Process for Unemployed Americans During Pandemic

Public Notice  |  Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission made it easier for individuals who have lost their employment during the coronavirus pandemic and who qualify for Lifeline benefits to enroll in the Lifeline program. Specifically, the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau temporarily waived the requirement that consumers seeking to qualify for the program based on their income must provide at least three consecutive months of income documentation. 

Under FCC rules, consumers can demonstrate eligibility for the Lifeline program by either showing that they participate in one of the established qualifying programs, such as Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or by showing that their household income is at or below 135% of the federal poverty guidelines. Individuals who have lost their jobs during the pandemic may not be able to verify their income-based eligibility for Lifeline with three consecutive months of income documentation because their unemployment and related decrease in income began so recently. Until June 30, 2020, consumers demonstrating their income-based eligibility can instead submit an official document that confirms their current income information, such as a notice of unemployment benefits. The Bureau will monitor the situation to determine whether any addition extension of this waiver is appropriate. In light of the ongoing pandemic, April 29’s order also extends the Bureau’s previous waivers of the Lifeline program’s recertification, reverification, general de-enrollment, and usage requirements until June 30, 2020. This extension will help ensure that no current Lifeline subscribers are involuntarily removed from the program during the waiver period. 

Trends point to business as unusual

Press Release  |  Verizon

 As some states ease stay-at-home restrictions, mobile handoffs (the times when a data session moves from one cell site to another as users walk or drive around) are starting to return to near pre-COVID levels in some regions, according to the latest Verizon Network Report. The Carolinas and Tennessee region are 1% below a typical day while the Georgia and Alabama region is down only 5% and the Central Gulf Coast region is down only 9% below a typical day. By contrast, many of the hardest-hit areas are still seeing major declines in handoffs compared to a typical day including the Upstate NY region (-58%), New England (-50%), and New York Metro (-47%).In addition, the Verizon Network Report shows that most categories of usage are starting to decline, with some falling significantly below peak levels. In particular downloads decreased 5% week over week, and have fallen 55% since the COVID peak, while gaming is down 10% week over week and down 45% since its peak. Customers have placed 14% fewer wireless calls from the peak of COVID calling and wireless calls are now 3% shorter in duration.

ACA Connects Launches COVID-19 Broadband Dashboard

Press Release  |  ACA Connects

To evaluate how our members’ DOCSIS (Hybrid Fiber-Coax) and Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks’ performed during the emergency, ACA Connects retained the strategy consulting firm, Cartesian, to perform an in-depth analysis. Cartesian found that despite the surge in Internet usage, our members’ networks continue to provide the same high-quality experience their customers have come to depend on. During the COVID-19 pandemic:

  • Data Usage
    • Download usage increased by 27%
    • Upload usage increased by 36%
  • Network Utilization
    • Typical network utilization did not change for large providers
    • Some small providers saw peak transit utilization increase, but generally not to a point that required action by the provider
  • Customer Experience
    • Support calls increased slightly, but 94% were not network-related
    • The small number of reported network issues were typically resolved in less than a day

INCOMPAS Files ‘Communications Marketplace Report’ Comments with FCC

Angie Kronenberg, Christopher Shipley, Lindsay Stern  |  Analysis  |  Incompas

INCOMPAS, the internet and competitive networks association, is urging the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a stronger approach to encouraging competition across all markets. Filing comments in response to the FCC’s second “Communications Marketplace Report” proceeding, INCOMPAS warns that competition is significantly lacking in the broadband wired services heavily relied on by families and small businesses who need faster, more affordable options. The INCOMPAS filing underscores the need for accurate maps and data, details antitrust threats in the video and streaming marketplace, and offers a strong warning against efforts to end the bipartisan competition laws that enable the Bridge 2 Broadband for new fiber builders and 5G deployments.
 

Spectrum/Wireless

AT&T, T-Mobile butt heads with Comcast, Wi-Fi in 5.9 GHz melee

Monica Alleven  |  Fierce

The 5.9 GHz band is at the center of several fights as the Federal Communications Commission considers opening the band for Wi-Fi after years of the spectrum laying mostly fallow. The week of April 20, the FCC adopted a plan to make 1,200 megahertz of 6 GHz spectrum, which is next door to the 5.9 band, available for unlicensed use. That was considered a watershed moment for the Wi-Fi industry, and while that was a complicated proceeding, the 5.9 GHz band has been described as even more so. But, T-Mobile is urging the FCC to make the entire 5.850-5.925 GHz band available for licensed cellular Vehicle to Everything (C-V2X) technologies. It also suggests that because a significant amount of spectrum soon will be made available for unlicensed use via the 6 GHz band, there’s no need to reserve a portion of the 5.9 GHz band for unlicensed operations.  Reallocating C-V2X to a different band outside the 5.9 GHz range is “simply infeasible,” according to T-Mobile. “The commission should therefore preserve the 5.9 GHz band for automotive applications and reevaluate its proposal to allocate spectrum in the band for unlicensed operations.”AT&T agreed on that score, saying commenters in the docket “overwhelmingly” oppose the reallocation of the lower 45 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band to unlicensed operation because Wi-Fi is not its best and most efficient use.

Health

FCC Approves Fourth Set Of Covid-19 Telehealth Program Applications

Press Release  |  Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission approved an additional 13 funding applications for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program. Health care providers in both urban and rural areas of the country will use this $4.2 million in funding to provide telehealth services during the coronavirus pandemic. To date, the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program has funded 30 health care providers in 16 states for a total of $13.7 million in funding.

  1. Augusta University Medical Center, in Augusta, Georgia, was awarded $113,744 to expand its ultraportable ultrasound program to differentiate and screen COVID-19 patients for different types of respiratory diseases prior to hospital admittance.
  2. Children’s Hospital Colorado, in Aurora, Colorado, with 14 locations throughout the state, was awarded $807,090 to implement telehealth services to provide continuity of medical care for children, adolescents, and young adults with complex pediatric illnesses in the Rocky Mountain region.
  3. Country Doctor Community Health Centers, in Seattle, Washington, was awarded $392,770 to serve its low income, high-risk, and vulnerable patient population by building its telehealth capacity and online screening functionality to triage COVID-19 patients remotely, while also leveraging telehealth to treat patients with chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, pulmonary disorders, and substance abuse disorders.
  4. Greene County General Hospital, in Linton, Indiana, was awarded $60,480 to expand its mobile telehealth capacity to ensure continued care to its patients, including its senior patient population, that have been displaced by the emergency COVID-19 response within its current facilities.
  5. The Institute for Family Health, in New Paltz, New York, one of the largest Federally Qualified Health Center networks in New York State, with locations in medically underserved communities in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, was awarded $729,118 for 16 of its community health centers, including group homes for the developmentally disabled, to provide telehealth visits for primary medical and preventive care, mental health care, and care management services for patients of all ages.
  6. Lancaster Health Center, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was awarded $75,710 to expand telehealth capacity to screen and treat COVID-19 patients, and manage care for patients at risk of severe complications if exposed to COVID-19, including care for its migrant patient population with high poverty rates and older patients with pre-existing conditions.
  7. Loudoun Community Health Center T/A HealthWorks for Northern Virginia, in Leesburg, Virginia, was awarded $93,380 to expand its video telehealth services to identify COVID-19 patients remotely and provide remote patient care.
  8. Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, was awarded $1,000,000 to implement video telehealth services and remote patient monitoring across its Midwest presence of over 50 communities in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, to minimize exposure and slow further spread of the COVID-19 virus while maintaining patient care and monitoring standards.
  9. McLaren Health Care Corporation, in Grand Blanc, Michigan, was awarded $626,328 for 12 health care provider sites to enhance telehealth connectivity across Michigan, in order to provide safe high-quality care to patients, including high risk and vulnerable patients at the Karmanos Cancer Center, and to decrease the exposure to all health care providers using multiple telehealth platforms and devices.
  10. New York Psychotherapy and Counseling Center, in Jamaica, New York, with two sites in the Bronx and Brooklyn, was awarded $126,799 to implement telehealth to serve low-income and at-risk patients struggling with mental health issues, in order to reduce 911 calls and emergency room visits, and expedite post-hospital discharge to free up space in New York City’s hospital system.
  11. Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation, in New Hyde Park, New York, was awarded $97,965 for telehealth services and connected devices, including remote monitoring devices, to care for the elderly and chronically ill in its 527-bed skilled nursing facility and rehabilitation center specializing in the care of older adults.
  12. Service Program for Older People, Inc., in New York, New York, was awarded $26,180 to implement telehealth services to provide comprehensive mental health services to adults age 55 and older, who are at a high risk for COVID-19 due to age, medical frailty, and isolation, and in order to avert unnecessary emergency room visits.
  13. Valley-Wide Health Systems, Inc., in Alamosa, Colorado, was awarded $46,437 to implement video telehealth services to provide virtual health visits for COVID-19 screening and primary medical care to its vulnerable low-income and elderly patients.

Education

Online Schooling Has a Tech Issue That No Apps Can Fix

Natt Garun  |  Vox

Despite the many tools at teachers’ disposal, many of their students aren’t able to connect due to a lack of computers, stable internet connections, or support at home to keep them focused on schoolwork. And even when they are able to log on, students still struggle in a variety of ways to follow along in their new learning environment — something teachers are finding that no amount of apps can help them resolve. Even with her school providing devices, Bay Area high school science teacher Allie Sherman says that class attendance has dropped to 60 percent since the move to distance learning. “Some households have no cellphone service so the hotspots don’t work. Many of the students are sharing devices with several siblings, including ones home from college, along with parents trying to do full time work at home on limited internet bandwidth. I know of students who’ve been driving to school and doing work in their cars using the school’s Wi-Fi,” she says.

Platforms

COVID-19 has taught us the internet is critical and needs public interest oversight

Tom Wheeler  |  Analysis  |  Brookings Institution

The connectivity and services built by information capitalists have become too important to be left any longer without public participation in determining the rules they follow. Critical nature of these digital services warrants public interest representation in decisions about their practices. Here are four ideas to incorporate public participation in establishing the rules for the critical services of the information era:

  1. Do not pretend these challenges can be shoehorned into industrial era regulatory structures.
  2. Digital companies should have a seat at the table in the development of the rules rather than having them force-fed. There should be a new federal agency that convenes, oversees, and approves a public-private process that establishes an agency-enforceable Digital Code.
  3.  This new Digital Code is not a substitute for antitrust enforcement.
  4. The regulatory oversight needs to be principles-based and agile

[Tom Wheeler was Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission from 2013 to 2017.]

Company News

Comcast Tops Q1 Earnings Mark

Jennifer Maas  |  Wrap, The, Comcast

Comcast said it beat earnings estimates for the first quarter of 2020, but missed on revenue, as the pandemic impacted the theme parks business and the theatrical division faced a tough comparison to year-ago hits. Highlights include: Total High-Speed Internet Customer Net Additions Were 477,000 (Not Including 32,000 Free Internet Essentials Customers), the Best Quarterly Result in 12 Years. High-speed internet revenue increased 9.3%, driven by an increase in the number of residential high-speed internet customers as well as an increase in average rates. The company reported that since March 1, its broadband networks have seen a 33% increase in upstream traffic and a 40% increase in wireless data usage over Wi-Fi. Comcast's Xfinity Wi-Fi outdoor and business hotspots are open in the US for free. Capital Expenditures decreased 10.1% to $1.9 billion in the first quarter of 2020. Cable Communications’ capital expenditures decreased 6.9% to $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2020. Comcast predicts that its cable division will be negatively affected in the second quarter by the significant deterioration in domestic economic conditions in recent weeks and by the costs associated with its support of customer connectivity as the population increasingly works and learns remotely from home.

FCC Reform

FCC Folds Media Bureau's Engineering Division into the Industry Analysis Division

Public Notice  |  Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission concluded that it will serve the public interest and improve its operations to streamline the organization of the Media Bureau. Specifically, the FCC eliminated the Engineering Division and folded the work and staff of the Engineering Division into the Media Bureau’s Industry Analysis Division (IAD). The FCC said it is taking this action to account for changes in the Engineering Division’s duties and in the organizational structure of the FCC. By incorporating the work and staff of the Engineering Division into IAD, the FCC says it can better ensure that the Bureau’s technical expertise is integrated more fully into the Bureau’s adjudicatory matters and policy proceedings. 

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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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Kevin Taglang

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Benton Institute
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