Across the country, state legislatures are ushering in better rural connectivity by passing new laws that enable electric cooperatives to expand high-quality Internet access. In recent years, much of this legislation has authorized co-ops to deploy broadband infrastructure along existing electric easements. Other bills have removed restrictions that previously prevented electric co-ops from providing Internet access. Together, the new legislation makes it easier for electric cooperatives to bring high-speed broadband access to their members, signaling a brighter future for unconnected rural communities.

The largest US telephone companies in 2018 asked regulators to kill limits on the rates smaller carriers can be charged for connecting to the giants’ networks. Now the small carriers are claiming they have successfully defended the regulations as the Federal Communications Commission nears conclusion of a proceeding it has acted on in parts. "We see it as a huge victory,” said Chip Pickering, chief executive officer of the trade group Incompas, whose members are smaller companies that offer broadband service and need to connect through lines controlled by companies such as AT&T and Verizon. The regulations are designed to ensure small companies have access to lines that carry traffic for businesses, schools and homes -- and can use those connections to expand broadband competition by building new fiber links. In June, USTelecom, a trade group with members including AT&T and Verizon, withdrew its request to remove rules around fiber lines that can carry signals from town to town, usually in less populated areas. And in July it withdrew its request to kill rules about local lines that can carry broadband. Incompas, representing the small service providers, says it scored victories with the withdrawals by USTelecom of portions of the petition in June and July. 

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) organized a coalition letter to Sens Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), urging them to work with consumer and privacy groups in the newly formed Senate Judiciary tech task force. July 18, Sen Blackburn held a closed-door session with representatives from tech companies, including Snap and Mozilla. The coalition letter said, "We need you to pursue an open and inclusive process that ensures that meetings are held in public, that a record is established, and that the voices of consumers are heard." The groups also said "the United States needs comprehensive, baseline federal legislation" and "an independent data protection agency." The groups concluded, "We can no longer let industry groups and ineffective agencies decide how much privacy Americans may have."

Community public television stations like Access Humboldt and other community services — including free internet at the library — could be throttled by a forthcoming Federal Communications Commission vote to hamper local regulation of cable companies.  Companies like Suddenlink Communications are required by local jurisdictions to pay “franchise fees” to support community access stations, but the FCC vote would allow Suddenlink to lump other contributions into its obligations, which are capped at 5% of the company’s local revenue.

Suddenlink, the leading cable and internet provider in Humboldt County (CA), helps fund Access Humboldt’s operations and contributes to public wireless network access. The new proposal, initiated by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, would assign a dollar amount to some of those contributions, which opponents say would strain the overall viability of public access. “We exist really out of that agreement, that social contract,” Sean McLaughlin of Access Humboldt said of Suddenlink’s required contributions to the station. “What the FCC is saying is, ‘We don’t trust local governments to represent their communities. We think they’re requiring too much of the corporations.'”

Ralph Nader wrote in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission's five commissioners saying the agency "remains a largely moribund, sluggish, frightened, alleged watchdog for the American consumer." He offers seven suggestions to improve the FTC:

1. Go on a road trip to get in touch with real people and absorb their grievances where they live, work and raise their families.
2. More workshops with intent to obtain media. To most reporters, the FTC is a laugh when it is not a yawn.
3. We need more thoughtful addresses and articles by FTC Commissioners. From all of you. Out there in the country, whether blue or red state, whether conservatives or liberals, they are indiscriminately cheated. They all bleed the same way.
4. Have occasional roundtable gatherings with consumer and other civic action leaders. The FTC, like any other agency, needs some thoughtful, friendly jolts.
5. Drive yourselves to levels of higher visibility. You’re supposed to be federal cops on the corporate crime/fraud beat. Act like enforcement officers! Regulation is just another word for law and order over crime in the suites.
6. Think of more penetrating ways to reach people. The FTC has a specific educational mandate. A higher profile may get more resources and stronger legal authority to keep up with the times.
7. Conference a call with the dynamic, former chair of the FTC, Michael Pertschuk.