Recent insights into successful broadband partnerships:

• Broadband partnerships between Rural Local Exchange Carriers (RLEC) and Electric Distribution Cooperatives (EDs) are uncommon, but when done right, can benefit all involved.
• Successful partnerships capitalize on each party’s unique strengths, which requires consistent, transparent communication, and flexibility at all levels.
• Once the business model has been agreed upon, it is critical to clearly define each party’s responsibilities concerning their shared customers and the infrastructure used to serve them.
• Thinking beyond near-term profits, RLECs and EDs should work with their local communities to maximize broadband’s economic development benefits, thereby helping to create long-term community value and growth in their customer base.

Under the new rule passed by the Federal Communications Commission, cable providers can now count “in-kind services” toward what they owe local communities. Such services include discounts for seniors and fiber-optic networks that link government buildings. That means two things: Cable companies will see their profits increase, and local community access television stations will see their budgets slashed. Along with community newspapers, cable access stations give voice to “regular” citizens from across the region, producing dozens of locally conceived and produced public interest programs, airing countless city and town government meetings and covering everything from Fourth of July parades to Thanksgiving football. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the move would free cash for the cable companies to expand broadband access to under-served communities. The cable companies, however, have made no such promise. “Comb through the text of this decision,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who voted against Chairman Pai’s plan. “You will not find a single commitment made to providing more broadband service in remote communities. There is no enforceable obligation to expand broadband capacity. There is no agreement that any savings from today’s action is pushed into new network development. I fear this absence speaks volumes.”

President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has harnessed Facebook advertising to push the idea of an “invasion” at the southern border, amplifying the fear-inducing language about immigrants that he has also voiced at campaign rallies and on Twitter. Since Jan, President Trump’s re-election campaign has posted more than 2,000 ads on Facebook that include the word “invasion” — part of a barrage of advertising focused on immigration, a dominant theme of his re-election messaging. President Trump’s language on immigration — particularly his use of the word “invasion” — is under scrutiny after the mass shooting in El Paso on Aug 3. The suspect in that shooting, which left 22 people dead, appeared to be the author of a manifesto declaring that “this attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” In his re-election campaign, President Trump has spent an estimated $1.25 million on Facebook ads about immigration since late March. Those ads represent a significant portion of the roughly $5.6 million that President Trump has spent on Facebook advertising during that period. Many of the ads began with a blunt message — “We have an INVASION!” — and went on to say, “It’s CRITICAL that we STOP THE INVASION.”