Friday, July 16, 2021
Headlines Daily Digest
Today: 5G and America's Digital Future
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House Agriculture Committee Approves $43 Billion Rural Broadband Bill
Everyone Complains About the Lack of Competition. Now Someone Wants to Do Something About It.
Connecting Anchor Institutions to Broadband Requires Access to Poles
Broadband Infrastructure
Competition
Digital Divide
Community Anchors
Wireless
Platforms/Social Media
Privacy
Health
Labor
Security
Agenda
Policymakers
Stories From Abroad
Broadband Infrastructure
The House Agriculture Committee approved a bill (HR.4374) to provide $43 billion over eight years to bring broadband service to hundreds of thousands of families and businesses that lack access. The bulk of the money, $36 billion, would go to loans, grants, and loan guarantees for the construction or improvement of internet service in small towns and rural areas with poor or no service. An additional $2.4 billion would pay for pilot projects to test various broadband technologies. A “broadband mapping” provision would help local groups measure their internet service and prove they need better service, as there have been complaints for years that internet providers overstate their coverage areas and connectivity speeds. Although committee support for the broadband bill was bipartisan, Democrats did most of the talking during the two-hour session, which ended with approval of the bill with no objections. The broadband bill carried a hefty price tag, yet was no guarantee the money would flow; if the bill becomes law, Congress would have to hold separate votes to provide funding.
NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fiber Broadband Association, INCOMPAS, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and Public Knowledge released a statement urging Congress to take bold action on broadband infrastructure. “Better, faster broadband for all is a national priority for students, families, and small businesses across America’s rural communities and urban neighborhoods," the statement reads. "As Congress continues its negotiations for an infrastructure plan, we stand together to call for funding that will enable every American to access 21st century broadband infrastructure. Those communities without wired 25/3 Mbps should be prioritized, with additional areas that are unserved at successively higher speeds included as funding permits. As entities receive funds to deploy broadband, Congress should require they build networks that will be scalable over time to meet the online needs of their communities. These future-proofed networks will support public safety, small business growth, education and telemedicine needs while enabling precision agriculture, powering 5G technology, and allowing for real-time, two-way communications by many users at the same location. The minimum speed for eligible projects to receive funds should be 100/100 Mbps. The US cannot afford to fall behind on deploying networks that are fast enough to support the education needs of today and the jobs of the future."
This report details strategies for successfully expanding high-speed internet access to every residence, business, and institution in Wisconsin by 2025, including solutions to make broadband affordable for all communities. Among others, the Task Force report included recommendations to:
- Increase funding for the Broadband Expansion Grant Program to help offset the costs for internet service providers and other applicants to serve difficult to reach areas;
- Establish a State Internet Assistance Program to lower the cost to obtain service and aid low-income families in sustaining internet service;
- Create a Planning and Implementation Grants Program to help regions and communities plan for broadband expansion; Increase construction and permitting coordination to streamline the process for providers to expand in a community;
- Collect internet access data from all ISPs at a household and business level of granularity to clarify who has reliable, high-speed access;
- Increase broadband consumer protections and pricing transparency so that people know what service they should expect and get what they are paying for; and
- Develop and fund a Statewide Digital Navigator program to assist people who are underserved due to inadequate service and solve a wide range of internet adoption issues.
The Task Force, created during the COVID-19 pandemic, consisted of experts, stakeholders, and public officials who met virtually between August 2020 and June 2021. Brittany Beyer, Executive Director of Grow North Regional Economic Development Corporation, served as chairperson of the Task Force. Throughout the process, the Task Force received presentations from outside experts and comments from the public, which helped identify forward-looking broadband policies and initiatives that aim to close the digital divide in the state.
Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Broadband Subcommittee Ranking Member John Thune (R-SD) sent a letter to Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to request a status update on the Federal Communications Commission's long-form application review process for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction. The auction awarded $9.2 billion over ten years to over 300 bidders to deploy high-speed broadband to over 5.2 million unserved homes and businesses in 49 states. The FCC’s RDOF rules prohibit the agency from authorizing money to winning bidders until it reviews and approves a given provider’s long-form application. The Senators asked that the FCC provide the following information by July 29, 2021:
- To date, of the 417 long-form applications filed, how many long-form applications have been reviewed by the FCC? How many long-form applications have been approved? How many long-form applications have been denied? If any have been denied, please describe why they have been denied.
- How many FCC staff are participating in the long-form application review process?
- Does the FCC plan to complete a review of all long-form applications before authorizing funding to the approved winning bidders? Yes or no? If yes, please explain why.
- Are there any rules or limitations in the RDOF Report and Order that prevent the Commission from authorizing funds on a rolling basis to winning bidders whose long-form applications have been reviewed and found sufficient? If yes, please describe those rules or limitations. If no, please explain why funding has not already been released to those winners whose applications did not present cause for further investigation?
- What measures is the FCC taking to ensure transparency and accountability in its long-form application review? Please include the factors and metrics the agency is considering in reviewing long-form applications.
- When do you estimate the FCC will complete its review of all long-form applications and begin authorizing support for all RDOF Phase I auction winners?
- Will you commit to providing monthly updates to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on the status of the FCC’s review of the long-form applications?
Broadband Competition
Everyone Complains About the Lack of Competition. Now Someone Wants to Do Something About It.
As the debate about investing in broadband infrastructure continues in Washington this month, it was heartening to see that President Joseph Biden acted to address competition in residential broadband service. Here's a quick look at what he did. On July 9, President Biden signed an Executive Order launching a "whole-of-government" effort to promote competition across the economy. The Executive Order includes 72 initiatives. One aim is to save households money on their broadband bills. While signing the Executive Order, President Biden said: "There are more than 65 million Americans who live in a place with only one high-speed Internet provider. Research shows, when you have [limited] Internet operation, you pay up to five times more on average than families in places with more choices. That’s what a lack of competition does: it raises the prices you pay."
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for steps to narrow the so-called homework gap as schools incorporate more technology into their classrooms. Ranking member of the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Bob Latta (R-OH) said that while larger cities often have high quality broadband access, many smaller communities do not, and there is strong bipartisan support of promoting digital equity. Chairman of the Senate Communications, Media and Broadband Subcommittee Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) stated that the pandemic only made the homework gap worse, and that the internet has solidified itself as a necessity in the US education system regardless of whether classes are in person or online. Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said that families should not have to choose between internet connection and other essential utilities.
The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition released a set of Pole Attachment Principles to Expedite Broadband Deployment to Anchor Institutions and Their Communities. We must reform the outdated, lengthy and costly process of attaching broadband cables to utility poles. Utility poles are the backbone of the nation’s critical broadband infrastructure and play a particularly important role in connecting rural residents and anchors to reliable, high-speed internet. Broadband providers trying to deploy rural broadband networks often have trouble obtaining permits from pole owners, renting space for equipment, replacing old poles and more. The process of preparing poles to carry broadband infrastructure is lengthy—as worn-down poles often must be replaced altogether before broadband infrastructure can be attached—and attaching the necessary equipment to utility poles can cost as much as one-third of total buildout expenses in rural communities. But it does not have to be this way; ee encourage Congress and other broadband policymakers to take these policies to heart and ensure that schools, libraries, health providers and other anchor institutions have the broadband tools they need to serve their communities.
Dish Chief Commercial Officer Stephen Bye gave updates on the company's 5G network progress at the Federal Communications Commission Open RAN Solutions Showcase. Bye touted Dish’s operations support system and business support system, which the company has said it is getting from Amazon Web Services. He said the back-end systems are “forward-looking and very different from a traditional operator.” On Open RAN, Bye indicated that he was pretty thrilled about working in a software-focused network where feature development could happen so much faster than in the old days with a network based on proprietary hardware. He considered the cost savings of Open RAN as only part of the equation of reducing network costs, “because the power benefit isn’t just the power on the radio, it is the ability to get the total cost down across the entire system that is important.” Dish has pledged to cover 20 percent of the US population with 5G by June 2022 and 70 percent by 2023. Bye stated that the network is well on track to meet these goals, and that nationwide construction is underway.
Platforms/Social Media
Sen Daines Introduces Bill to Counter Big Tech, Protect Users' Political Speech & Beliefs
Sen Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced the Preserving Political Speech Online Act (S.2338) to crack down on Big Tech and online platforms’ ability to discriminate against users based on their political speech and beliefs. Daines’ bill would enforce equal access to political candidates on online platforms as well as create a provision to prohibit the removal of content based on political beliefs. The Preserving Political Speech Online Act will:
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Require the FTC to initiate a rulemaking to require online platforms and third-party advertisers to follow fair access and equal opportunity rules, including:
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If an online platform permits a federal candidate to advertise they must allow all other candidates for the same office equal opportunity to advertise
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The rates must be comparable for all candidates for the same office
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An online platform may not censor any advertisement for a candidate
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Require online platforms to maintain and make publicly available a complete record of political advertising purchases.
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Require the FCC to initiate a rule making to apply the existing Section 315 laws to all licensees that engage in political advertising.
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Update the ‘good faith’ provision in Section 230 to ensure that platforms can remove truly offensive material or material that promotes illegal activity.
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Create a new ‘bad faith’ provision that prohibits the removal of content based on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or political affiliation or speech.
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Exempt from the ‘bad faith’ provision platforms that operate services dedicated to a specific set of issues or beliefs.
Should Google get front-facing internet platforms should be regulated as common carriers or public utilities has been kicking around for a while. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed a lawsuit in June asking a state court to rule that “Google’s provision of internet search is properly classified as a common carrier and/or public utility under Ohio common law.” He also published an op-ed in The New York Times touting the strategy as a way to stop Google from favoring its own business over competitors who rely on it to reach customers. “As legal touches go, it’s a lot lighter than what antitrust law would demand,” he wrote. Unfortunately, it’s also a bit light on logic. “This guy has made such a mess,” said Barbara Cherry, a professor of at the Indiana University Media School who studies common carriage and public utility law. “For a lawyer, it’s particularly sloppy.” The first red flag in the Ohio lawsuit is that it doesn’t even try to define what a common carrier or public utility is. The second red flag is that Yost suggests that the two concepts are interchangeable. All he’s seeking, he wrote in the Times op-ed, is “a simple declaration that, under the law, Google is a public utility, or more generally, a common carrier.” In fact, common carriage is not a more general species of public utility.
Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the August Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, August 5, 2021:
- Establishing Two New Innovation Zones – The Commission will consider a Public Notice that would create two new Innovation Zones for Program Experimental Licenses and the expansion of an existing Innovation Zone. (ET Docket No. 19-257)
- Numbering Policies for Modern Communications – The Commission will consider a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update the Commission’s rules regarding direct access to numbers by interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol providers to safeguard the nation’s finite numbering resources, curb illegal robocalls, protect national security, and further promote public safety. (WC Docket Nos. 13-97, 07-243, 20-67; IB Docket No. 16-155)
- Appeals of the STIR/SHAKEN Governance Authority Token Revocation Decisions – The Commission will consider a Report and Order that would establish a process for the Commission to review decisions of the private STIR/SHAKEN Governance Authority that would have the effect of placing voice service providers out of compliance with the Commission’s STIR/SHAKEN implementation rules. (WC Docket Nos. 17-97, 21-291)
- Modernizing Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Compensation – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on TRS Fund compensation methodology for IP Relay service. (CG Docket No. 03-123; RM-11820)
- Updating Outmoded Political Programming and Record-Keeping Rules – The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update outmoded political programming rules. (MB Docket No. 21-293)
- Review of the Commission’s Part 95 Personal Radio Services Rules – The Commission will consider a Memorandum Opinion and Order on Reconsideration that would grant three petitions for reconsideration of the Commission’s May 2017 Part 95 Personal Radio Services Rules Report and Order. (WT Docket No. 10-119)
The wave of spontaneous protests that rocked Cuba on July 11 was propelled by social media and the proliferation of mobile internet, which Cubans have only had for the past three years. The government responded by leaving the island virtually incommunicado for two days. To contain the spread of mass demonstrations, authorities cut internet service, along with the fixed phone lines of some activists in the island. The shutdown made it hard for Cubans to organize or to get news of the demonstrations out to the rest of the country. The security crackdown has quelled protests for now, but activists say that they are determined to continue their campaign. The regime must weigh the impact of more internet shutdowns, which could further weaken a struggling economy.
Internet access for the Cuban people is of critical importance as they stand up against the repressive Communist government. Such access may be the key to finally bringing democracy to the island. The tyrannical regime of President Miguel Díaz-Canel has shut off access to the Internet. The Cuban people have lost their ability to communicate with one another, and many Floridians born in Cuba have no information on the safety of their loved ones. Equally as important, the world has also lost the ability to see what is happening on the ground as the Cuban people rise in support of freedom. Technology exists to provide Internet access into Cuba remotely, using the innovation of American enterprise and the diverse industries here. The federal government has a history of supporting the dissemination of information into Cuba for the Cuban people through Radio & Televisión Martí, located in Miami. In addition to sending information, however, our efforts must include creating a means for the Cuban people to speak to the world. I urge [the Biden Administration] to act immediately to provide all necessary authorizations, indemnifications, and funding to American businesses with the capability to provide Internet access for the people of Cuba.
The Internet has proliferated unevenly across the world, resulting in a global digital divide. In the past decade, concerns related to technology ‘haves’ and ‘haves not’ have grown in prominence in the countries of South Asia (including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal) that are witnessing an increased digital divide. This study specifically looks at the case of Pakistan, and how the country's digital inequalities are increasing in terms of the public's access and their use of the Internet and information and communication technology (ICT) devices. Drawing on the framework of digital divide, this study aims is to explore the diverse challenges that underpin the digital divide in Pakistan, and the policy-related issues that affect wide-ranging digitalization in the country. Contextual factors, including the urban-rural divide, gender disparities, income and educational inequalities, and religious and cultural barriers altogether underpin Pakistan's existing digital divide. This research further unpacks policy-related challenges including a lack of policy evaluation and refinement, a lack of focused research, and inappropriate allocations of funds at federal, national and sectoral levels that affect wide-ranging digitalization in the country.
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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