Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Headlines Daily Digest
Governor Cooper Announces Rural Broadband Week in North Carolina
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Federal Coalition Announces 2021 National Tribal Broadband Summit
Seven steps the FCC should take on broadband in response to the infrastructure bill
California Public Utilities Commission rules T-Mobile lied about Sprint merger
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Infrastructure
The Senate infrastructure bill gave the primary responsibility of universal broadband deployment and adoption to the states, with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) providing oversight. To help achieve the Senate’s goals, the FCC should:
- Immediately commence a Notice of Inquiry that enables stakeholders to debate (and the FCC to analyze) what COVID-19 taught us about the future of connectivity needs and how states should consider the trade-offs for determining what kind of networks to fund.
- Survey whether there is a critical mass of states interested in using the reverse auction mechanism to allocate some of their funds to be distributed through a competitive grant program.
- Add anchor institutions to the mapping process.
- Announce that it is postponing the second Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction until the current congressional funding has run its course.
- Start a proceeding to lower the contribution factor to reflect congressional appropriations.
- Accelerate the RDOF review process and detail staff with expertise in that process to the NTIA for its review of the state competitive grant plans.
- Immediately commence a process for stakeholders to debate, and the FCC to resolve, how best to reform the universal service mandate.
Under the Senate infrastructure bill, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) would distribute $42.5 billion in new broadband subsidies through grants to eligible states. Local authorities would then competitively award that money to broadband service and infrastructure providers. That strategy is a departure from past efforts to help fund broadband access in which the independent Federal Communications Commission played the leading role. The FCC in recent years has deployed broadband via “reverse auctions.” In that process, the FCC asks broadband providers the minimum amount of money they would need to service a specific area and the lowest bidder wins the subsidy. Executive Director of the 2010 National Broadband Plan Blair Levin stated this change would be a trade-off in the new plan; while “there are some benefits to having local leaders decide where the needs and opportunities are,” the FCC’s auction mechanism probably enhances competition, according to Levin. However, the FCC maintains a significant role in identifying and mapping unserved locations in the US, and the FCC and NTIA will have to communicate to ensure there is no overlap in funding. Measures like the June 2021 interagency agreement amongst the FCC, NTIA and Agriculture Department are in place to help them do so.
Gov Roy Cooper (D-NC) proclaimed August 16–20 as Rural Broadband Week to call attention to the urgent need to improve broadband access and adoption across the state. Throughout the week, Gov Cooper and the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) will highlight how increased investments can equitably expand digital infrastructure, tools and skills in rural areas, allowing all North Carolinians to participate in today’s digital economy. Rural Broadband Week celebrates the innovative broadband activities by residents, businesses, nonprofits and governments in rural North Carolina. In rural areas in North Carolina, 33.5 percent of households – a total of 43,000 households – do not have access to infrastructure for broadband speeds of 50/10 Mbps. Rural counties make up 18 of the 20 counties in which more than half of households lack access to 100/10 Mbps internet speeds, which is considered high speed. Gov Cooper's $1.2 billion Closing the Digital Divide Plan will give 95 percent of households access to broadband of 100/20 Mbps and will address issues of affordability and digital literacy that affect rural counties. Those efforts will be accelerated by NCDIT's new Office of Digital Equity and Literacy, a first for North Carolina and a first in the nation.
The National Tribal Broadband Summit will take place September 17, 24 and October 1, 2021. This year's virtual event will convene Tribal broadband industry experts to discuss how to make the most use of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Grant funds, American Rescue Plan Act funds, and other Federal funding opportunities for broadband, and how to plan for the future of Tribal broadband networks and digital economies. The 2021 summit will focus on:
- Implementing the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Grant. Planning and implementing network construction and expansions, obtaining rights of way, NEPA assessments, and multi-jurisdictional projects. Implementing telehealth, distance learning, adoption, and workforce development projects, including equipment distribution and maintenance, curriculum development, and training methodologies.
- Planning for Long Term Success. Identifying needs, setting goals, creating strategies, developing a plan, and leveraging data to maximize the short and long-term educational, cultural and economic benefits of connectivity. Developing a local tribal workforce to maintain and operate networks, capacity building for Tribes and Tribal organizations, and achieving financial stability.
- Technical Solutions, Middle Mile, Connectivity Solutions. Exploring the various connectivity options available and identifying possible solutions to bring broadband to Tribal lands. E.g., spectrum white spaces, new spectrum and how best to use it, and middle mile networks.
- Broadband Use and Adoption. Leveraging technology to improve health care outcomes via telehealth services, enhancing economic development, increasing community engagement, and expanding educational opportunities.
T-Mobile lied to government regulators about its 3G shutdown plans in order to win approval of its merger with Sprint, according to a ruling from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The ruling ordered T-Mobile "to show cause why it should not be sanctioned by the commission for violating" a CPUC rule with "false, misleading, or omitted statements." T-Mobile won approval for its 2020 acquisition of Sprint in part by agreeing to sell Sprint's Boost Mobile prepaid business and other assets to Dish, and agreed to make its 4G LTE and 3G CDMA networks available to Dish customers during a three-year transition period from 2020 to 2023 according to the CPUC. But T-Mobile now plans to stop providing CDMA network services nationwide on January 1, 2022, and Dish has urged government regulators to force T-Mobile to live up to its commitments. T-Mobile's false and misleading statements under oath indicated, among other things, that T-Mobile would make its CDMA network "available to Boost customers until they were migrated to Dish Network Corporation's LTE or 5G services" and that Dish would have up to three years to complete the migration. The CPUC can impose penalties against T-Mobile of up to $100,000 for each offense.
T-Mobile is investigating a forum post claiming to be selling a mountain of personal data. The forum post itself doesn't mention T-Mobile, but the seller told Vice they have obtained data related to over 100 million people, and that the data came from T-Mobile servers. On the underground forum the seller is asking for 6 bitcoin, around $270,000, for a subset of the data containing 30 million social security numbers and driver's licenses. The seller said they are privately selling the rest of the data at the moment. "I think they already found out because we lost access to the backdoored servers," the seller said, referring to T-Mobile's potential response to the breach. They stated that although T-Mobile has since kicked them out of the hacked servers, the seller had already downloaded the data locally. T-Mobile confirmed that "unauthorized access to some T-Mobile data occurred," and also said to Vice that they "are aware of claims made in an underground forum and have been actively investigating their validity." The company has since declined to answer follow-up questions about the scale of the breach.
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 Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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