The Administration strongly opposes House passage of the Save the Internet Act (HR 1644). Since the [Restoring Internet Freedom] rule was adopted in 2018, consumers have benefited from a greater than 35 percent increase in average, fixed broadband download speeds, and the United States rose to sixth, from thirteenth, in the world for those speeds. In 2018, fiber was also made available to more new homes than in any previous year, and capital investment by the Nation’s top six Internet service providers increased by $2.3 billion.

HR 1644 would undermine this success by repealing the Federal Communications Commission’s current rule to: (1) restore the classification of broadband as an information service and end the public-utility-style regulation of the internet; and (2) promote transparency by requiring broadband providers to disclose their network management practices and commercial terms, including any blocking, throttling, paid prioritization, or affiliate prioritization. HR 1644 would instead return to the heavy-handed regulatory approach of the previous administration and undo the FCC’s action that restored theFederal Trade Commission’s authority to investigate and take enforcement action against unfair, deceptive, or anti-competitive acts or practices committed by broadband providers. HR 1644 would also prevent the Commission from adopting rules similar to the current regulations, tying the hands of the Commission in the future and preventing the agency from evolving its rules to adapt to emerging technologies.

If HR 1644 were presented to the President, his advisors would recommend that he veto it. 

The House will vote on H.R. 1644 (Save the Internet Act of 2019), introduced by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA), which would reinstate the net neutrality protections of the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order. H.R. 1096 (Promoting Internet Freedom and Innovation Act of 2019), a competing measure introduced by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), purports to restore the Open Internet Order’s rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization, as well as the transparency rule. Both bills have been touted as means to restore comprehensive net neutrality protections for all Americans. A comparison of the bills’ protections shows that only H.R. 1644 would achieve that goal. H.R. 1644 restores all of the 2015 net neutrality rules, as well as the important protections and clarifications that were codified in the text of the 2015 Open Internet Order which explained the rules and closed known loopholes. H.R. 1096 does not include all of the 2015 net neutrality rules or any of the protections included in the text of the 2015 Open Internet Order. As a result, H.R. 1096 creates significant loopholes and drastically reduces the level of protection compared to the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality protections that the bill is designed to replace. That leaves Americans unprotected against known net neutrality violations.

Rural Kansas residents are angered by bad cellphone connection in Conway Springs (KS) due to only one service provider working in the area. "It's kind of a monopoly as far as the cellphone service goes," said Clay Murphy, superintendent of Conway Springs schools. A map released by Gov Laura Kelly (D-KS) showed the broadband connection throughout the state of Kansas. In rural Kansas areas it was the lowest, including Conway Springs. "Even the one's that have the carrier depending on where you're at in town or on the edge of town, you can't get service," Murphy said. According to Murphy, since no other service provider's connection works in there town, it makes it hard for the residents to have any selection. "Individuals, as far as finding carriers and finding the right deals and affordability, it gets tough," he said. Gov Kelly has asked for the public's input on the matter. The public can go to connectednation.org/kansas/feedback to let their thoughts be heard.

A consortium led by USTelecom, ITTA, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA), and a group of broadband companies have created a new initiative to improve the quality of broadband mapping. The Broadband Mapping Initiative will start with a pilot program in MO and one in my home state of VA. The pilot will aggregate all locations in MO and VA, identify their geolocation, and create a Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric to identify locations that require access to broadband. These pilot projects will result in the most sophisticated and detailed maps of broadband availability for those states. The consortium plans to use tools spawned by the digital revolution, including mapping databases and crowdsourcing platforms, that when combined with existing provider service address information will tell us who has broadband and who does not. It’s hoped that the pilot programs will prove the concept, allowing the Federal Communications Commission and other government agencies to replicate the Broadband Mapping Initiative pilot nationwide.

[Rick Boucher was a member of the US House of Representatives for 28 years and chaired the House Communications Subcommittee. He is honorary chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) and a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm Sidley Austin.]

With enormous progress being made by the Federal Communications Commission’s 2014 E-Rate modernization, it became clear that some schools were nonetheless being left behind.  As a result, Benton commissioned Improving the Administration of E-Rate: Ensuring All Schoolchildren Get the High-Speed Broadband Connections They Need to help the FCC make good on the 2014 reforms -- and ensure that every student, regardless of income or geography, had access to the same digital learning opportunities.  I want to especially thank EducationSuperHighway for their partnership in this effort. 

Over the past months, Benton been discussing the future of broadband with a broad range of community leaders from around the nation. We’ve learned about game-changing strategies to improve libraries , including with the help of the E-Rate program. We’ve heard about new ways to reach schools, libraries, and other anchor institutions in a county along the California-Mexico border. Building off these and other insights, in the fall of 2019, Benton will be releasing a compressive and forward-looking new report, A Vision for the 2020s: Access to Broadband in the Next Decade, to offer an agenda for broadband access and availability over the next ten years. The more we talk to state and local leaders, the more we realize that community leadership is a cornerstone to any public-policy agenda. Recognition of the importance of that kind of leadership is critical to the successful administration of the E-Rate program, as it will be critical to meeting the new broadband challenges of the 2020’s.

[Adrianne B. Furniss is the Executive Director of the Benton Foundation]

On Oct 3, 2018, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission and the National Weather Service, conducted a nationwide test of both Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The nationwide test demonstrated that WEA is an effective alerting tool to rapidly disseminate emergency information to the public. Based on survey data shared with the Commission, most people reported successful receipt of the WEA test message, with several news reports noting the success of the nationwide test to reach the public. The test also highlighted areas where WEA delivery can be improved, such as ensuring more consistent delivery, reducing duplicate messages, and resolving issues concerning alert message audio tone and vibration cadence.

Any search engine can quickly reveal your phone number, address and family information with a surprising level of detail. This information, combined with social media posts, can be used by anyone to intimidate, harass, or stalk high-visibility people like politicians, business leaders, celebrities and journalists. However, going through smart opt-out processes can reduce your online footprint, making it more difficult for malicious actors to target you. Here’s how: Go to one of the lists of people aggregator sites, like the one provided by IntelTechniques, and go through the opt-out steps. Don't provide any additional, optional, or new information like a driver's license or phone number, and consider making a burner email just to receive opt-out confirmations. Opting out of all of them is harder than unsubscribing from an email. So aim for reducing the amount of information available, rather than attempting to go completely off the grid.

Ernest F. Hollings, known as Fritz, a silver-haired South Carolina Democrat who served 38 years in the US Senate, died on April 6 at age 97. Hollings, who retired in 2004, had successfully pushed for broadcast cable regulation. When he retired, on the list of accomplishments his office wanted everyone to remember was that he had "Reined in the cable TV monopolies, as the driving force in the early 1990s for the Cable and Consumer Protections Act."  Hollings had argued that "persistent service and rate abuses by TV cable companies around the country " prompted him to "to lead the charge," as his office put it at the time, "in giving the Federal Communications Commission authority to regulate basic cable TV rates and set minimum service standards." Hollings was also a driving force behind the Children's TV Act (along with Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) that required broadcasters to air minimum amounts of educational and informational children's programming. Former FCC Chairman Michael Copps tweeted on April 6, "Sen. Fritz Hollings, my boss for 15 years and friend of almost 50, passed away this morning.  He was South Carolina’s statesman of the 20th century.  The first and last of “New South” Democrats, he revered public service and led his people through education, honesty, and candor."