Wednesday, June 17, 2020
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A New Approach to Closing the Digital Divide: Direct Giving
Broadband/Internet
A New Approach to Closing the Digital Divide: Direct Giving | Read below | Kevin Frazier | Op-Ed | Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Wireless
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Apparently, the Trump administration is preparing a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure proposal. A preliminary version being prepared by the Department of Transportation would reserve most of the money for traditional infrastructure work, like roads and bridges, but would also set aside funds for 5G wireless infrastructure and rural broadband
Where communities cannot access the basic elements of a healthy and prosperous life, technological solutions that eliminate or, at least, substantially reduce the transaction costs of reallocating capital from the “haves” to the “have nots” should be implemented. These solutions need not come from an establish tech company or even a startup, something as lean as a nonprofit can make this sort of solution tenable and effective. We need a direct giving platform for donors to cover people’s broadband bills, including upgrades to higher-speed services. Covering these bills will ensure that service is maintained throughout the school year, for example. Covering upgrades will give families the uploads and download speeds required to let kids learn, parents upskill, and grandparents hop on Zoom—all essential activities to combat the Homework Gap, unemployment, and social isolation, respectively. That’s why I’m looking for any and all help to build No One Left Offline—a crowdsourced approach to providing access to high-speed Internet.
[Kevin Frazier is pursuing a Masters of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a J.D. at the UC Berkeley School of Law. He's the founder of No One Left Offline. Send him any feedback @kevintfrazier]
Wireless
FCC Chairman Pai Discusses C-Band, the Keep Americans Connected Pledge, and Bad Broadband Maps at Appropriations Hearing
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government held the hearing "Oversight of FCC Spectrum Auctions Program" in which Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai testified. Leading the hearing was Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy (R-LA), one of the harshest critics of the FCC decision to give satellite companies close to $10 billion in incentive payments to exit the C-Band spectrum by 2021 and 2023 instead of the 2025 deadline the FCC set. Satellite companies have pledged to clear the first 120 MHz of spectrum in 46 partial economic areas (PEAs) by Dec. 5, 2021, then 120 MHz in the remaining PEAs and the other 180 MHz by Dec. 5, 2023. Chairman Kennedy pressed Chairman Pai on why the FCC did not just use its authority to mandate they get off in 2021, particularly since it was already giving those operators over $4 billion in relocation costs, whenever they exit. Chairman Pai said that exiting early meant the spectrum would be more valuable for wireless companies eager to get their hands on it for 5G, and so it would draw a higher price at auction, and more money for the treasury, than if the wireless operators did not clear off until 2025. Chairman Pai got some help from Ranking Member Chris Coons (D-DE), who pointed out that the money going to the treasury could go to rural broadband if Congress decided it should go there, and Chairman Pai agreed, saying he supports that.
Sen Jerry Moran (R-KS) expressed concerns about whether and how Congress could compensate internet service providers for their contribution to COVID-19 relief — in the form of investment in and payment relief for their customers via the Keep Americans Connected pledge. Chairman Pai said the FCC would be happy to work with Congress on a way to compensate ISPs, particularly smaller, rural carriers, for the lost revenue due to their pledge not to pull the plug on nonpaying customers during the pandemic.
Sen James Lankford (R-OK) asked about the FCC's Mobility Fund Phase II Universal Service Fund subsidy maps —based on carrier-supplied data — that were proven to be wrong. He asked what consequences were falling on those who had put out "false maps and false information" to the FCC and to Congress. "Are carriers who gave false maps to you going to have consequences?" he asked. Chairman Pai did not exactly say yes. He agreed there "are definitely consequences for violating our rules" but said he would not speculate on what those might be, saying it would depend on the individual facts."
T-Mobile finally fixed network issues that had caused intermittent voice and text outages that affected customers across the US. The outages, which started June 15 just after 12 p.m. ET and continued for about 13 hours, were an “IP traffic related issue” that “created significant capacity issues in the network core throughout the day,” according to an update from T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert. Later, T-Mobile President of Technology Neville Ray wrote:
The trigger event is known to be a leased fiber circuit failure from a third party provider in the Southeast. This is something that happens on every mobile network, so we’ve worked with our vendors to build redundancy and resiliency to make sure that these types of circuit failures don’t affect customers. This redundancy failed us and resulted in an overload situation that was then compounded by other factors. This overload resulted in an IP traffic storm that spread from the Southeast to create significant capacity issues across the IMS (IP multimedia Subsystem) core network that supports VoLTE calls.
A T-Mobile US service outage, which kept thousands of customers from making calls or using data on June 15, will be investigated by the Federal Communications Commission. “The T-Mobile network outage is unacceptable,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said, adding that the FCC would launch a probe into the matter. “We’re demanding answers -- and so are American consumers.” Voice and text services have since been restored. The network outage was related to the company’s 5G rollout, said Deutsche Telekom AG Chief Executive Officer Tim Hoettges. Because of T-Mobile’s network problems, callers with other service providers were having trouble connecting to T-Mobile customers, giving an impression that other carriers were also experiencing disruptions.
Ericsson Mobility Report: fixed broadband usage increased an average of 2.5 hours a day during COVID-19
The Ericsson Mobility Report for June 2020 found that fixed broadband usage increased an average of two and a half hours a day, while COVID-19 mobile usage, on average, increased about one hour per day. As people spent more time online at home, network traffic loads shifted geographically from city centers and office areas to suburban residential areas. In markets with limited penetration of fixed residential networks, the mobile data demand increase was especially high. Other key findings:
- Ericsson expects to see 190 million 5G subscriptions by the end of 2020.
- The LTE penetration in North America is 92%.
- By year-end 2025, the researchers expect close to 325 million 5G subscriptions in North America, where 5G will represent 74% of mobile subscriptions.
- Mobile traffic is expected to grow by 31% annually between 2019 and 2025. Most of the growth will come from video traffic.
The partners behind a new Wi-Fi hotspot in West Baltimore's Sandtown are ready to bring free high-speed internet access to another city neighborhood. A free Wi-Fi hotspot has been active in Baltimore's Sandtown neighborhood for about a month. Jonathan Moore, one of the local organizers behind the hotspot project, said now it's time to begin building out an affordable wireless network spanning several underserved neighborhoods. The next steps of the project include bringing wireless routers into the homes of about 50 local residents and setting up a new hotspot in Cherry Hill in South Baltimore. Moore said the project was in motion before the onset of Covid-19, but the pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated some of the inequities that have long existed in Baltimore's lowest-income communities, namely a lack of access to low-cost, high-speed internet.
Moore also said it is critical for the partners to continue the non-technical work of enhancing community buy-in. The community Wi-Fi project partners are relying on community leaders and organizations like Safe Streets to help educate and build trust among residents in neighborhoods selected to host the new hotspots. Although the Sandtown hotspot has drawn a lot of early enthusiasm, Moore said, it has also drawn some skepticism about the goals of the project and its backers. "We've heard people asking if we're the FBI or DEA, if we are spying on people," Moore said. "We have to do a lot of work to dispel those fears and build trust... But we have also seen people are excited to see people actually bringing some new resources into West Baltimore."
Staff from the Georgia Department of Education shared a statewide public education update June 15. Two key issues came to the forefront quickly for school districts across the state, said Tiffany Taylor with the Georgia Department of Education. Those were providing students with continued access to school meals and ensuring families have access to internet connectivity and digital devices for distance learning. The state education department surveyed schools at the start of the pandemic to find out how many students would have access devices outside of school. They learned that 528,000 devices need to be purchased statewide to put laptops into children’s hands, and 187,000 MiFi devices, which provide personal Wi-Fi, are needed because of the high number of students who do not have internet access at home.
Security
Commerce Dept Clears Way for US Companies to More Fully Engage in Tech Standards-Development Bodies in Telecom Sector
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced a new rule ensuring US industry’s ability to more fully contribute to standards-development activities in the telecommunications sector. International standards serve as the critical building blocks for technological development by enabling functionality, interoperability, and safety. US participation and leadership in standard-setting influences the future of 5G, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, and other cutting-edge technologies. This action is meant to ensure Huawei’s placement on the Entity List in May 2019 does not prevent American companies from contributing to important standards-developing activities despite Huawei’s pervasive participation in standards-development organizations.
Under the new Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) rule, technology that would not have required a license to be disclosed to Huawei before the company’s placement on the Entity List can be disclosed for the purpose of standards development in a standards-development body without need for an export license. In amending the Huawei Entity Listing, the rule promotes US national security and foreign policy interests by facilitating US leadership in standards-development bodies. The general advisory opinion posted by BIS on August 19, 2019, is no longer in effect. The Department will continue to engage with stakeholders and take the actions necessary in the interest of U.S. national security and foreign policy.
As more aspects of our lives increasingly move online, we must contend with operating in a digital public square owned by private entities — one where freedom of expression falls not under the purview of the First Amendment, but under emergent standards being shaped by technology companies. Such challenges have taken on an increased urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Americans turning to social media for interaction and information and finding the platforms awash in false claims and conspiracy theories that threaten health. As freedom of speech is considered sacrosanct in the U.S., where do we draw the line on free expression in online communities? Is there a consensus among Americans on what is considered harmful, and what should be restricted? And who decides when and whether to restrict potentially harmful content — social media companies, the government or some other entity? At the same time, a national debate has focused on who should be held liable for such content — the person who posts it or the internet company that hosts it? Gallup and Knight conducted a study to gauge Americans’ opinions on these matters, delving specifically into two potential paths forward — amending Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which largely shields internet companies from legal liability for content shared on their sites, and the relatively new notion of content oversight boards.2
Voice of America is one of the largest and most trusted independent news agencies in the world. Efforts to blacklist VOA journalists from interview requests to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are an unprecedented attack on press freedom in the United States. VOA is often one of the few critical and independent voices available in countries without a free press, such as Russia and China. Restrictions on VOA at home will be noted by illiberal leaders abroad, who may follow the example of the United States and crack down on VOA or other independent outlets in their countries, limiting access to essential information including about the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States should be an exemplar, not a detractor, of press freedom around the world. The administration must respect and commit to maintaining the firewall that prohibits political interference in VOA’s independent reporting.
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.
© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2020. Redistribution of this email publication — both internally and externally — is encouraged if it includes this message. For subscribe/unsubscribe info email: headlines AT benton DOT org
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