Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Headlines Daily Digest
Today: Fiber Connect; Modernizing Consumer Protection; Expanding Broadband in the Black Rural South
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Ajit Pai apparently mismanaged $9 billion fund—new FCC boss starts “cleanup”
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The Federal Communications Commission wants SpaceX to give up a portion of the $885.51 million in broadband funding it was awarded in a reverse auction in December 2020. SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband division was one of the biggest winners in the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) grants announced in Ajit Pai's last full month as FCC chairman. Overall, Pai's FCC awarded $9.2 billion over 10 years ($920 million per year) to 180 bidders nationwide, with SpaceX slated to get $885.51 million over 10 years to serve homes and businesses in parts of 35 states. Pai apparently mismanaged the auction, as an announcement from Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office said the FCC has to "clean up issues with the program's design originating from its adoption in 2020." The FCC cited "complaints that the program was poised to fund broadband to parking lots and well-served urban areas." The FCC suggested that SpaceX give up its funding in about 6 percent of the census blocks where it's slated to get money. Other ISPs are being asked to give up smaller portions of their funding.
Cisco released the US Municipal Infrastructure Index, a nationwide survey of city, county, town and tribal government leaders. The findings are clear: an overwhelming majority agree that broadband is “critical infrastructure” and placed essential upgrades in the top tier of their must-do projects in their locales. We found:
- 94 percent said broadband is a crucial element of infrastructure for “having a well-educated and informed public;”
- 91 percent considered internet access “critical to future economic growth in our community;
- 80 percent said they consider broadband to be “critical infrastructure;
- 70 percent said they have “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects that could be started if funding became available.
Cisco will continue to help service providers connect, secure, and automate their networks to deliver essential connectivity with dramatically reduced investments making it easier to expand broadband access and ensure that rural Americans can securely access the economic, educational, and health opportunities they need. It’s imperative that America builds back better by providing broadband access to all Americans. Investments in rural broadband are overdue.
Three internet service providers responded to the Rappahannock County Broadband Authority’s official request for information (RFI), bringing the Virginia county one small step closer to procuring broadband for unserved areas. The authority sent the RFI to 13 commercial providers in June 2021 in the hopes of identifying a partner to develop the county’s broadband network and heard back from All Points Broadband, Shenandoah Telecommunications Company, and Madison Gigabit Internet. Partnering with a provider will allow Rappahannock County to apply for federal and state grants which are unavailable to localities on their own. The next step is for the broadband authority to review the responses at a meeting on July 22 and then select a partner. The authority may move swiftly, given an approaching state funding deadline; the county has until July 27 to declare interest in funding from the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative, a pool of more than $50 million earmarked for broadband projects. To obtain funding in the next cycle, localities and their partners must submit their applications by September 14.
I have a deep appreciation for TDI, not just because of your expertise, but because I have a long history of working with you on the issues you care about. Before I came to the Federal Communications Commission, I served as legal counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee. I’m particularly proud to say that one of the highlights of my tenure is that I worked on the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. This law is terrific, but I also know we can’t rest on our laurels. Because the events of the past year and a half have changed our relationship with technology. Broadband is no longer nice-to-have. It’s need-to-have for everyone everywhere. But we’re not only working to make sure people have internet access as we try to get beyond the pandemic; the FCC's Disability Advisory Committee has been exploring issues relating to accessibility gaps that have become apparent, including accessible telehealth, availability of telecommunications relay services, IP captioned telephone service, and more. We want to engage with TDI on all of these issues. And if you believe there are other areas under our authority that are of concern I encourage you to let us know. Because when we improve access to communications for millions of individuals with disabilities, we strengthen our economy, our civic life, and our nation.
Multimillion-euro fines can force Big Tech companies to change their behaviour despite their deep pockets, according to French Competition Authority President Isabelle de Silva. She does not believe sanctions could be played down as merely “the cost of doing business,” breaking away from the consensus in the European Union, where competition officials have struggled for years to contain the market power of Big Tech despite levying billions of euros of penalties. Since June 2021, her office has hit Google with €720 million in fines in two separate cases. The first was related to the company's advertising technology business, with investigators mapping out how Google leveraged its different roles in selling online banner ads to disadvantage competitors, and the second came after Google failed to follow an order to reach a fair deal with the country’s publishers over payment for their content. The French Competition Authority had so far been the only watchdog able to extract a fine from Google without an appeal, she said. De Silva pushed back at the idea that regulation kills innovation—a notion advanced by powerful tech lobbyists in Brussels—and said Google and other very large platforms would still have the ability to generate profits even after tougher rules were enacted in Brussels in 2022.
The Internet Atlas Project at the University of California, Berkeley's goal is to shine a light on long-term risks to the internet. We produce indicators of weak points and bottlenecks that threaten the internet’s stability. Our research shows that the internet is facing twin dangers; on one side, there’s the threat of total consolidation. Power over the internet has been increasingly concentrated primarily in the hands of a few, US-based organizations. On the other side, there’s fragmentation. Attempts to challenge the status quo, particularly by Russia and China, threaten to destabilize the internet globally. In this environment, building a stable and transnational internet for future generations is a challenge. To make the internet more stable globally, people need measurements to understand its chokepoints and vulnerabilities. Just as central banks watch measures of inflation and employment when they decide how to set rates, internet governance, too, should rely on indicators, however imperfect.
[Nick Merrill is a research fellow and director of the Internet Atlas Project at the University of California, Berkeley.]
Verizon’s Fios business continued to flourish in the second quarter as its broadband subscriber base rose again. During the quarter, Verizon added 92,000 Consumer Fios Internet customers. Total Fios revenues were up 5.4 percent year-over-year, driven by continued broadband subscriber growth. It ended the quarter with a total of 6.4 million Fios subscribers. Consumer Fios revenues of $2.9 billion in second-quarter 2021 were the highest since the company's new operating structure was introduced in 2019. Matt Ellis, CFO of Verizon, told investors during its second-quarter earnings call that “the company’s trailing 12-month total Fios Internet net addition performance is the highest since 2015.” Within the Fios broadband arena, Verizon is seeing more of its customers migrate to its 1 Gbps speed package. “Momentum in Fios continues with revenues of $2.9 billion, surpassing pre-COVID levels, driven by the continued uptake of gigabit speeds,” Ellis said. “The results represent our highest revenue results ever.”
5G is considered a key technology for society, but its implementation is surrounded by controversy. Beyond its technical aspects, 5G has become a question of security and national interest for many EU Member States as well as an international policy issue. Technological autonomy and digital sovereignty are increasingly recognized as strategic priorities on a global scale, yet the EU's position is unique for two reasons. On one hand, the EU has unintentionally become part of the playing field in the US-China dispute over technology companies and 5G. On the other hand, any policy of the EU or its Member States is constrained by the nature of 5G as an area of either European or national competence. The delimitation of their competences is not clear, just as there is no transparent and understandable distinction of their 5G responsibilities. In order to clarify this situation, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the European competence and legal frameworks, resulting in an overview of their scope and limits. After explaining the procedures and instruments of European policy, this study concludes by assessing implementation and development prospects. The possibility of reaching technological autonomy and digital sovereignty for the EU and its member states depends, for the time being, on EU competence.
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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