The Federal Communications Commission is revamping its Broadband Data Collection Program. Meanwhile, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is working to distribute tens of billions of federal dollars to support state and local broadband initiatives. Next Century Cities, the National Broadband Mapping Coalition, Buckeye Hills Regional Council, Access Humboldt, SA Digital Connects, the National Association of Counties, California Community Foundation, and South Bay Cities Council of Governments urged the FCC to clarify what its new broadband mapping challenge process entails. According to their letter, local governments and consumers are directly impacted by inaccurate federal mapping. Uncertainty related to the challenge process can be a drain on already limited community resources. Clarity about what information will be included in the FCC’s updated protocols would boost local leaders’ participation in informing data sets. "The Commission can support complementary local data collection efforts and coordination between entities by defining the challenge process to whether the map accurately depicts speeds offered in the marketplace," it said. "Additionally, the Commission should provide guidance for communities that have not started the data collection process by providing specific examples of local data collection efforts that would assist with national broadband mapping initiatives."

I’m starting to wonder if big cable companies and telecom companies are assuming that a fifth Federal Communications Commissioner will soon be seated because the lobbying arms of these companies have been publishing documents that are an open plea to not regulate them. The latest comes in the form of a whitepaper from ACA Connects, which represents the mid-sized internet service provider (ISP) like Cable ONE, WOW! Internet, Mediacom, TDS, Armstrong, Hotwire, and ISPs of a similar size. You might recall that the giant ISPs put out a whitepaper through USTelecom that made the silly argument that broadband is getting cheaper, with the punch line being, “Don’t regulate us”. The ACA paper takes a different tactic and argues that most of the country already is, or will soon have competition, with the same punch line. It’s important to understand that these papers are not written for the general public so much as for the politicians in Washington (DC). The average consumer knows that broadband is not getting cheaper, and most know they have only one realistic choice of fast ISP. I could write twenty pages commenting on the many things said in the whitepaper that stretch the truth a bit – but it seems unnecessary since the whole point of the paper is to plant that seed that ISPs are taking care of the business of broadband and don’t need to be regulated.

[Doug Dawson is president of CCG Consulting.]

The 5G for 12 GHz Coalition, a group that includes Dish Network, RS Access [and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society], said that it wants to set the record straight on Starlink’s “misinformation campaign.” The most recent spat started when SpaceX encouraged Starlink users to send messages to the Federal Communications Commission and lawmakers about the 12 GHz proceeding. More than 70,000 messages flooded the FCC’s public comment system in a matter of days, mostly from people who said they want to protect the Starlink satellite system from what they perceive as a bad plan by Dish to use the 12 GHz band for 5G. The comments are tied to an online petition, hosted on votervoice.net, designed to send pre-written messages; it’s not clear how many are duplicative or if all the senders are actual Starlink customers. The Starlink internet service had over 400,000 customers around the world as of May 2022. The 5G for 12 GHz Coalition for over a year now has been engaged in a fight with SpaceX over the viability of sharing the 12 GHz band with satellites and terrestrial 5G. The coalition argues that the engineering analysis shows sharing is possible while SpaceX disputes that. “In addition to this manipulated filing, Starlink has initiated a public misinformation campaign by falsely telling customers and the public that coexistence is not possible in the band among Starlink and 5G services – despite nationwide data proving otherwise,” the 5G for 12 GHz Coalition said on July 7. “This tactic, which is commonly used by Elon Musk, is not only disingenuous, but it promulgates an anti-5G narrative that is harmful to American consumers who deserve greater competition, connectivity options and innovation.”