Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is the most significant rural infrastructure initiative of our time. At over $20 billion, there is sufficient funding in the RDOF to support the most advanced fiber optic services to every rural home in the nation. The program has the potential to become the Rural Electrification Act of our generation, especially if it fosters the same spirit of local initiative, local ownership and local control.

The Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF II) auction revealed how competitive bidding improved upon the universal service programs of the past: for a fraction of the funding per location, 100 Mbps and Gigabit-capable networks are being built. The CAF II auction also revealed important community preferences. The vast majority of member-owned organizations (e.g., rural electric and telephone cooperatives) bid at the Gigabit tier. Similarly, the vast majority of Gigabit tier funds in the CAF II auction were won by community organizations building fiber-to-the-home networks. Just as important, these networks are being built with less than half the federal funding paid out by the prior Administration.

The proposed RDOF auction will adhere closely to the CAF II auction, and adds one new component – consumer choice. Should a winning bidder fail to attract consumers, the FCC will withhold funds under a formula that uses the FCC’s cost model assumption that a universal service provider should be able to gain a 70% market share.  It’s a prudent, fiscally responsible approach. Yet, as proposed, the FCC will still distribute significant universal service funding to companies that attract few or no customers. Under the FCC’s proposal, a winning bidder in the RDOF auction that attracts less than 1% of the households and businesses would still receive over 50% of its RDOF funding. I believe an additional approach should be considered, one that would not disturb the current FCC proposal, would not affect the budget, and would give rural communities the opportunity to express their preferences at the outset. Imagine if rural communities in high-cost areas were given a say in how broadband funds would be spent. 

[Prior to joining Conexon, Jonathan Chambers served as Chief of the Office of Strategic Planning for the Federal Communications Commission. He was part of the senior leadership at the FCC that reformed $12 billion in annual federal spending, including the rural and high cost fund, e-rate, telecommunications relay services and the lifeline programs.]

San Francisco is challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s move to override a city mandate that apartment and office building owners share in-use cable wiring with broadband providers upon request. On July 22, the city asked the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to undo the commission’s decision to preempt part of a San Francisco law, which bars building owners from interfering with an occupant’s right to choose a communications service.

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is reviewing whether and how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and are engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers. The Department’s review will consider the widespread concerns that consumers, businesses, and entrepreneurs have expressed about search, social media, and some retail services online. The Department’s Antitrust Division is conferring with and seeking information from the public, including industry participants who have direct insight into competition in online platforms, as well as others. The goal of the Department’s review is to assess the competitive conditions in the online marketplace in an objective and fair-minded manner and to ensure Americans have access to free markets in which companies compete on the merits to provide services that users want.  If violations of law are identified, the Department will proceed appropriately to seek redress.

“Without the discipline of meaningful market-based competition, digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Antitrust Division. “The Department’s antitrust review will explore these important issues.

Apparently, the Federal Trade Commission plans to allege that Facebook misled users’ about its handling of their phone numbers as part of a wide-ranging complaint that accompanies a settlement ending the government’s privacy probe. In the complaint, which has not yet been released, federal regulators take issue with Facebook’s earlier implementation of a security feature called two-factor authentication. It allows users to request one-time password, sent by text message, each time they log onto the social-networking site. But some advertisers managed to target Facebook users who uploaded those contact details, perhaps without the full knowledge of those who provided them. The misuse of the phone numbers was first identified in media reports and by academics in 2019. The FTC also plans to allege that Facebook had provided insufficient information to users — roughly 30 million — about their ability to turn off a tool that would identify and offer tag suggestions for photos. 

Some key findings about the state of the news media in 2018:

1. US newspaper circulation reached its lowest level since 1940, the first year with available data. 
2. Cable news was a bright spot in another down year for the US news media industry’s economic fortunes. Revenue rose 4% over the past year for Fox News, CNN and MSNBC combined. 
3. Digital ad revenue has grown exponentially, but a majority goes to Facebook and Google rather than to publishers. Revenue from ads placed on digital platforms – counting all platforms, not just news sites – rose by 23% in 2018, and now makes up nearly half (49%) of all ad revenue in the US. When it comes to display ad revenue – a form of digital advertising that include banners, videos and other advertisements that news organizations and other websites typically run alongside their content – half of all digital revenue went to just two tech companies: Facebook (40%) and Google (12%). 
4. The audience for local TV news has steadily declined. The average audience fell in key time slots in 2018, down 10% for morning news and 14% for late night and evening news.
5. Traffic to news websites seems to have leveled off. Unique visitors to the websites of both newspapers and digital-native news sites showed no growth between the fourth quarters of 2017 and 2018, the second year in which there was no notable growth.

Facebook and Amazon both set quarterly records for federal lobbying over the last three months, leading a pack of large tech companies that are increasingly under siege in Washington. Each company spent a little more than $4 million on lobbying in the second quarter, the first time either firm has spent that much on their influence operations in the capital. Google, which has also seen its fortunes change in Washington, spent just $2.9 million in the second quarter — the least it’s spent on lobbying since 2011.