Daily Digest 9/10/2021 (FCC Agenda)

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
Table of Contents

Agenda

FCC Announces September Open Meeting Agenda  |  Read below  |  Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel  |  Press Release  |  Federal Communications Commission

Digital Inclusion

LightBox Releases Internet Connectivity Map  |  Read below  |  Press Release  |  LightBox

Satellites

Starlink kickstarts a satellite broadband market that could disrupt telecommunications  |  Read below  |  Arun Menon  |  Op-Ed  |  Fierce
Starlink and the Precarious Future of Broadband in Rural America  |  Read below  |  Jacob Templin  |  Scientific American

Wireless

State/Local

Gov DeWine Launches New Grant Program to Expand Broadband Access in Ohio  |  Read below  |  Press Release  |  Ohio Office of the Governor
Maine to Receive Over $128 Million for Broadband From American Rescue Plan  |  Read below  |  Sen Angus King (I-ME)  |  Press Release  |  US Senate
Maple Broadband partners with WCVT to build and operate a fiber-to-the-home network in Vermont  |  Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Fort Dodge, Iowa secures $37 million to pay for the construction of a municipal broadband utility  |  Messenger, The
Alachua County, Florida libraries offer free wi-fi hotspots for library cardholders  |  Gainesville Sun

Platforms

Texas governor signs bill prohibiting social media giants from blocking users based on viewpoint  |  Read below  |  Cat Zakrzewski  |  Washington Post
Rep Schiff implores Amazon to tackle vaccine misinformation in letter to CEO Andy Jassy (Rep Adam Schiff  |  Rep Adam Schiff (D-CA)

Ownership

FTC's action on Amazon's MGM deal may decide its approach to future mergers and acquisitions  |  Axios

TV

The Death of the Cable Modem  |  Broadband Communities
Amazon to Launch Its Own TVs in Push to Cement Itself in Living Rooms  |  Wall Street Journal

Company News

Verizon expands 5G Home Internet, is now available in parts of 82 cities  |  Verizon
Ciena wants to make a name for itself in the routing market  |  Fierce
Smart Glasses Made Google Look Dumb. Now Facebook Is Giving Them a Try.  |  New York Times
Verizon strikes a 10-year 5G technology deal with the NFL  |  Fierce

Stories From Abroad

Brazil’s President Bans Social Networks From Removing Some Posts  |  New York Times
Russia Influences Hackers but Stops Short of Directing Them, Report Says  |  New York Times
Facebook Slams Calls to Sell Giphy in Response to the UK Competition and Markets Authority  |  Bloomberg
Today's Top Stories

Agenda

FCC Announces September Open Meeting Agenda

Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel  |  Press Release  |  Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission announced the agenda for its September open meeting. In the September 30, 2021 meeting, the FCC will:

  • Revisit the Wireless Resiliency Cooperative Framework, its network outage reporting rules, and strategies to address electric power outages.
  • Revisit remaking the 4.9 GHz band and seek comment on how to advance the FCC's original goal to ensure public safety enjoys maximum access to emerging broadband technologies while also increasing overall use of the band through a single framework that will support 5G.
  • Vote to initiate the process for certifying Wi-Fi 6 supported systems and speed the deployment of next-generation Wi-Fi.
  • Start a Notice of Inquiry to better understand the current and future spectrum needs of Internet of Things connectivity.
  • Consider a proposal to require gateway providers that are the point of entry for foreign calls to use new caller ID authentication tools and perform robocall mitigation.
  • Consider a proposal to bolster the Do-Not-Call registry for telephone numbers used by 911 call centers.
  • Vote on a proposal to ensure Tribal entities can access the E-Rate program and prevent the issue of Tribal libraries being shut off from E-Rate support.
  • Vote to adopt a baseline set of national security and law enforcement questions for certain companies with foreign ownership.

Digital Inclusion

LightBox Releases Internet Connectivity Map

Press Release  |  LightBox

LightBox released its nationwide internet connectivity map, showing that nearly 1 in 6 Americans is not connected to the Internet as well as 60 million Americans nationwide. This new map layers the location of approximately two billion Wi-Fi access points on top of LightBox’s national Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric, which details the precise geospatial extent, address(es), occupancy classification, and number of business or dwelling units for structures across the United States. Through this granular location fabric and geospatial expertise, combined with internet service provider data on broadband serviceable locations, LightBox could produce a nationwide broadband connectivity map that would offer the precise analysis of true accessibility. The map displays a nationwide view of internet connectivity rates across the country, aggregated at the Census tract level; interested parties may contact LightBox for access to the complete map, which shows data down to each location.

Satellites

Starlink kickstarts a satellite broadband market that could disrupt telecommunications

Arun Menon  |  Op-Ed  |  Fierce

The arrival of new space ventures like Starlink and OneWeb is bringing about a disruption of sorts in the telecommunications sector, specifically the broadband internet market. That’s because the International Telecommunication Union estimates that just over half of the world’s total population has access to the internet. Adding to the digital divide is the urban-rural inequality; globally, about 72 percent of households in urban areas had access to the internet in 2019, almost twice as much as in rural areas (37 percent). While one aim is to bridge this gap, it is not the only goal of satellite broadband operators given the heavy CapEx investments involved in building equipment and related infrastructure. For the time being, operators will focus on rapid customer acquisition and cross-selling opportunities, but they will expect benefits arising from their respective space pursuits to trickle down into earnings in the long run. Starlink’s emergence as a dominant player will force rival satellite operators to either merge or join hands with each other. Mergers and partnerships are ways to ensure constant access to capital — one of the key factors for sustaining the operator business model in the satellite broadband industry.

[Arun Menon is Lead Analyst at MTN Consulting, with 13 years of experience in strategy and research.]

Starlink and the Precarious Future of Broadband in Rural America

Jacob Templin  |  Scientific American

Starlink’s goal is to beam high-speed Internet from space, down to the most remote parts of the world. Even though SpaceX's satellite internet service is still being tested—with mixed reviews—the company is getting a lot of attention in Washington (DC) at a moment when the government is willing to spend taxpayer dollars on infrastructure and take chances on new broadband deployment methods. In 2018 the Federal Communications Commission approved Starlink’s plan to send 12,000 satellites into orbit. In 2020, the company was granted nearly $900 million in winning bids through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to help connect rural parts of the country using taxpayer money. Even though space-based Internet is getting a lot of attention, it remains unclear what role it will play in solving the nation’s broadband problem. For now, what is clear is that Starlink has a place at the table. Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel says that when it comes to connecting Americans, all options—including Starlink’s extraterrestrial one—should be considered. “We should be open to every technology that can help bring broadband fast,” Rosenworcel said, “and that is definitely one of them.” 

Platforms

Gov DeWine Launches New Grant Program to Expand Broadband Access in Ohio

Press Release  |  Ohio Office of the Governor

Gov Mike DeWine (R-OH) announced that the Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant program is now accepting online applications. Funded as part of Ohio's 2022-2023 operating budget, the program will provide $250 million in grants to internet service providers (ISPs) for the construction of broadband projects that improve high-speed internet access in unserved and underserved areas of the state. Projects will provide service access of at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload to residents in areas that do not have a provider that can supply service at this speed. ISPs can apply online from September 6, 2021, until 5 pm Nov 8, 2021. Applications will be reviewed by the Ohio Department of Development and BroadbandOhio, which was created by the DeWine-Husted Administration in March 2020 to be the point of contact for all broadband projects in Ohio. Eligible applications will be sent to the Ohio Broadband Expansion Program Authority for approval and funding. More information on the new Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant is available here.

State/Local

Maine to Receive Over $128 Million for Broadband From American Rescue Plan

Sen Angus King (I-ME)  |  Press Release  |  US Senate

Senator Angus King (I-ME), co-chair of the Senate Broadband Caucus, applauded an announcement that the US Treasury Department is allocating more than $128 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to expand Maine broadband. These funds are drawn from the ARP’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, which was secured by Sen King in the final legislation and passed 50-49 with King's vote. In addition to $128,245,250 in broadband funding for the state, each of Maine’s five tribes will receive $167,000 in funding. Combined with the broadband funds Maine is projected to receive from the bipartisan infrastructure bill upon House passage, the state will receive hundreds of millions of dollars to increase affordable, high-speed broadband access statewide and narrow Maine’s digital divide.

Texas governor signs bill prohibiting social media giants from blocking users based on viewpoint

Cat Zakrzewski  |  Washington Post

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) signed a bill that would prohibit large tech companies from blocking or restricting people or their posts based on their viewpoint, setting the stage for a legal battle with the tech industry. The law applies to social media companies with more than 50 million monthly active users in the United States, including Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube, and requires them to create reports on any illegal or potentially policy-violating content, as well as build a complaint system, where people could challenge companies’ decisions to remove content or flag illegal activity. Individuals and the state attorney general could file lawsuits if they believe that the tech companies wrongfully banned them from their platforms. The Texas law argues that social media platforms function as “common carriers,” reflecting an increasingly common argument in conservative circles that social media companies should be forced to host all users.

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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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