Comcast met with Federal Communications Commission officials the week of June 24 to urge them to adopt NCTA-The Internet & Television Association's proposal to use polygon shapefiles to more accurately map broadband deployment, including where service could be lit up in a matter of days (which Comcast argues should count as served). In their meeting with FCC officials, the Comcast executives made the point that the shapefiles mapping approach would be more granular than census block, saying shapefiles "accurately reflect coverage in partially served census blocks that may not be depicted correctly in the current broadband map." Comcast also pointed out that the NCTA method would identify as served locations "to which a service provider could provide service within 7 to 10 business days without any heavy lifting." That was a point NCTA made in its proposal, saying that “any revision to the reporting requirements should make clear that areas where a provider can respond to a request for service in a standard installation interval without special construction charges should be reported as served.”

As the Senate geared up to pass its defense policy bill, the office of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) unsuccessfully pushed to add language that would require that a provision mandating Pentagon-led test beds to examine sharing 5G airwaves come with a requirement that the government “solicit and consider the input of commercial wireless service providers, equipment manufacturers, and firms developing and operating spectrum sharing technologies” as part of planning. 

New America’s Michael Calabrese confirmed this language comes from his public interest coalition, which was consulted about DoD’s proposed test beds. He said including this particular addition would be “important since it ensures input from a wide range of wireless interests, not only the mobile industry, which is always pushing to clear DoD off bands where that simply isn’t going to happen in the foreseeable future.” Watch for more debate over these provisions when the Senate and House move to conference their two versions of the defense legislation later this year (and where we expect more pushback from the wireless industry, which fears the Senate language about 5G test beds could amount to a jurisdictional power grab on the part of the Pentagon).

New America’s Open Technology Institute called on the Federal Communications Commission to reject a petition that would harm the E-Rate program, which helps schools and libraries access broadband service. Access Humboldt; National Consumer Law Center, on behalf of its low-income clients; Next Century Cities; Public Knowledge; and United Church of Christ, OC Inc. signed onto the comments as well. The petition, filed by three Texas carriers, calls for a sweeping change to the E-Rate rules that would prohibit E-Rate subsidies from going toward building or extending networks in areas where fiber already exists. This policy, if enacted, would favor monopolies and duopolies across the country and prevent competitors from entering the market, thereby making it easier for incumbent providers to raise prices for E-Rate services.

“The FCC should reject this petition," said OTI Policy Analyst Amir Nasr. "Millions of Americans, particularly students, rely on libraries and schools that receive E-Rate funding for broadband internet access. The program has been working well for years, but these carriers want a sweeping rule change without sufficient evidence of a problem. The E-Rate program should support projects that make broadband more affordable for schools and libraries, and cutting off funding to any area already covered by fiber is harmful to broadband affordability and competition.”

Google's "Jigsaw" is a moonshot division formed in 2010, now thought of as an "elite think tank." Founded as Google Ideas, its goals included using technology to fight radicals from San Salvador to the Middle East; investigating human trafficking, terrorism, and cybercrime; and developing software to conduct the first public opinion poll in Somalia. While trying to save the internet from censorship, extremists, and hackers may sound like one of the best jobs in tech, more than a dozen current and former employees of Jigsaw said that the reality inside is bleak. Current and former Jigsaw employees describe a toxic workplace environment, mismanagement, poor leadership, HR complaints that haven't resulted in action, retaliation against employees who speak up, and a chronic failure to retain talent, particularly women engineers and researchers. Sources describe a place full of well-intentioned people who are undermined by their own leaders; an organization that, despite the breathless headlines it has garnered, has done little to actually make the internet any better.

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA.) led eight of his Democratic colleagues in calling on the Federal Communications Commission to maintain essential elements of the “Kid Vid” rules, which ensure access to children’s education programming on over-the-air broadcast television, in accordance with the Children’s Television Act. The letter, a response to the Commission’s recently-released draft order, urges FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to preserve existing rules requiring broadcasters to air three hours of regularly scheduled educational children’s programming a week on their primary stations. “While we are pleased that the FCC is not moving forward with its initial plan to dismantle the children’s television rules, we write to express our concern that the Commission’s current proposed changes would limit the reach of educational content available to children and have a particularly damaging effect on youth in low-income and minority communities.” write the Senators. “The Commission’s current proposal would allow a third of required educational content to be aired on secondary ‘multicast’ stations, effectively limiting viewers’ access to these shows for the sake of providing increased ‘flexibility’.”  Also signing the letter are Sens Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

President Trump's consistent attacks on free press and access to information, mostly through social media, have forced judges to re-evaluate the rules of political communications in the digital era. First Amendment advocates are waiting for a ruling that will end a two-year-long debate over whether President Donald Trump, and other public officials, can block constituents on social media. Shortly after Trump was elected, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) confirmed that tweets posted by President Trump using his @realDonaldTrump handle are considered presidential records. And in 2018, a federal judge found that the White House's stripping of the security pass of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta was unconstitutional.