Tuesday, July 14, 2020
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Today: Future of Telehealth
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Chairman Pai Welcomes First Completed Buildout of CAF-II Broadband
ITIF -- Lessons From the Pandemic: Broadband Policy After COVID-19
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I congratulate Bloosurf for being the first company to satisfy its buildout requirements with funds from our recent Connect America Fund Phase II auction, making fixed broadband available to more than 5,000 rural homes and businesses in Maryland and Delaware. I’ve seen firsthand the positive impact that the funds provided through the Connect America Fund Phase II auction are having across the nation—including in Delaware itself, where I visited with Bloosurf in rural Seaford in early 2019. I look forward to additional providers satisfying their broadband deployment requirements in the months and years to come. I am also looking forward to our upcoming $16 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Phase I auction this fall, which will bring high-speed broadband to up to 5.4 million unserved rural locations. This Federal Communications Commission is pulling out all the stops to close the digital divide, and we are making significant progress.
The historic COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity for policymakers to examine the successes and failures of the nation’s broadband system. The stay-at-home orders, business closures, and social distancing necessary to fight coronavirus transmission generated a considerable increase in broadband traffic and a dramatic shift in usage patterns. The jump in demand has seen peak traffic roughly 20 to 30 percent higher than before the pandemic. Thankfully, the increase in broadband traffic was within the anticipated growth in demand operators could already accommodate. As such, U.S. broadband networks were able to accommodate these changes with virtually no drop in performance. The facilities-based competition model the United States relies on to incent providers to invest in infrastructure passed the COVID-19 network stress test, performing better than Internet infrastructure in many other countries. The dynamic broadband competition in the United States has driven billions of dollars into network capacity that met the surge in demand. The light-touch regulatory approach also allowed for network operators to flexibly adjust interconnection levels to meet new changes in demand.
Nonetheless, the COVID-19 pandemic also amplified some glaring failures with U.S. broadband policy. A persistent digital divide continues to mean not everyone is connected, whether it be due to a lack of infrastructure in rural, uneconomic areas, or a variety of adoption hurdles throughout the country. This evidence from the pandemic should galvanize policymakers and civil society to shift the conversation toward productive gap filling, rather than continuing the tired old debates around issues such as net neutrality and municipal broadband.
In a Big Cable First, Charter Plans to Participate in RDOF Auction; Eyes Billions in Funding for Rural Broadband
Charter plans to participate in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction. Depending how successful the company is in the auction, the build-out could involve multiple millions of locations and an investment of multiple billions of dollars, Charter said. Major cable companies-turned-broadband providers such as Charter traditionally have not participated in government funding programs. They weren’t eligible for the traditional Universal Service Fund program and either didn’t participate in or didn’t win funding in the Connect America Fund CAF II auction, which was open to a broader range of service providers. But Charter sees opportunity in the RDOF.
Telecom and broadband financial analysts at MoffettNathanson Research applauded Charter’s news, noting that Charter already has been deploying fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) in some rural areas and “our understanding is that they have been pleased with the returns.” FTTH can easily support gigabit speeds, which could give Charter a bidding advantage in the RDOF, which will use a weighting system to favor bids to provider higher-speed, lower latency service. “Bringing true gigabit speeds to previously unserved and/or underserved markets virtually guarantees both rapid uptake and high terminal market share,” wrote MoffettNathanson. “And if earning a return on even the first high capacity network to such markets requires a subsidy, then the risk that there will eventually be a second (competing) network in these markets is almost nil.”
The Federal Communications Commission announced that the post-incentive auction transition has successfully reached the July 13, 2020 deadline established for television stations to move off their pre-auction channel assignments. This milestone signals that all of the valuable low-band airwaves sold in the ground-breaking broadcast incentive auction are now available for wireless mobile broadband services. This newly licensed 600 MHz band spectrum is already benefiting millions of US consumers, as it is being used to provide wireless service, including 5G, across the country. And with the end of the transition, the broader deployment of this spectrum will further help close the digital divide in rural America, ease congestion on wireless networks, promote the widespread availability of 5G, and spur job creation and economic growth.
To meet the booming demand for mobile broadband that was being fueled by the smartphone revolution, Congress empowered the Federal Communications Commission to conduct a first-of-its-kind, two-sided auction that would allow spectrum used for broadcast TV to be repurposed for wireless services. In April 2017, we closed the bidding in the incentive auction, which yielded $19.8 billion in revenue. Roughly $10 billion went to broadcasters as incentive payments for giving up their spectrum. $7 billion went to deficit reduction, and $1.75 billion is available to repacked broadcasters to reimburse them for their reasonable costs of relocating to new channels. And most important, 84 megahertz of low-band spectrum in the 600 MHz band would be repurposed for licensed and unlicensed wireless use. But I haven't even described the hard part yet: the repack.
The deadline for the transition is today [July 13], and I’m proud to announce that we have accomplished our objective. All of the valuable low-band airwaves sold in the ground-breaking broadcast incentive auction are now available for wireless broadband service. Today represents a major milestone in the FCC’s goal to repurpose spectrum to meet the demands of today’s wireless consumer. Thanks again to everybody who contributed to this remarkable success story!
Distance learning in the pandemic highlights a problem that experts have warned about for years - some students have good access to the Internet, and others do not. It's called the digital divide. Many districts are about to start the school year with more distance learning, so how can they narrow that divide? Nicol Turner Lee thinks it's important for schools to put together what she calls the 21st-century remote access blueprint.
Here are two recommendations for how higher education institutions can help close the digital divide:
- Restructure Tuition and Fees to Provide Technology for All Students. Incorporate laptop and technology accessory needs, like hotspot activation and coverage, into the tuition and fees cost structure.
- Develop Free Technology Loan Programs for Students. Students could contact an institutional department to request technology upon registering for classes and receive a loaned tool for the duration of their active enrollment.
[Mordecai I. Brownlee is the vice president of student success at St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas.]
Telehealth services surged during the coronavirus pandemic, and yet we have to deal with the harsh reality that Black communities disproportionately lack access to the telecommunications services that provide access to critical, life-saving care. This is why I have called for an expansion of the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline program, which is the only federal subsidy that offers voice and broadband services at a subsidized rate to low-income Americans, to meet the critical needs of this moment in history. This program, which is vastly underutilized at an under 20 percent participation rate, can fulfill broadband and voice connection needs for many families that must choose between buying groceries versus purchasing an internet connection.
And I want to be clear; these glaring inequities have been a historical, structural failure that have always deserved our attention. However, in this moment and in this movement, I challenge all of us to rise to the occasion and address the issues of the digital divide through a lens of equity with the understanding that broadband access is a civil right we can’t afford to lose but many can’t afford to have.
In comments submitted to the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee as they develop their party platforms for 2020, New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) made recommendations on the following:
- Protect Digital Equity During COVID-19
- Restore Net Neutrality
- Ensure Universal Access to the Internet
- Make Internet Service Affordable
- Legalize Municipal Broadband
- Strengthen Antitrust Enforcement in Digital Markets
- Protect Consumer Privacy and Civil Rights Online
- Preserve Strong Encryption
- Reform Government Surveillance Laws
- End the Unchecked Use of Police Surveillance Technologies
- Preserve Freedom of Expression Online While Holding Platforms Accountable
Stories From Abroad
Britain to bar Huawei from its 5G wireless networks, part of a growing shift away from the Chinese tech giant
Apparently, Britain will bar new deployments of Huawei equipment in its fledgling high-speed 5G network, in what is a major blow to the Chinese technology giant and a significant win for the Trump administration, which has been pressing allies to shun the firm. The British decision, expected to be announced July 14, is part of a growing shift away from China in the global 5G competition, especially among advanced democracies increasingly concerned that the firm’s ties to the Communist government create an unacceptable security risk. The Chinese crackdown in Hong Kong and Beijing’s lack of transparency on the origins of the coronavirus have added to concerns in Western capitals about using Chinese technology, apparently. Britain will also announce it will phase out over several years the small amount of Huawei 5G equipment installed in recent months.
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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