Cities and urban counties across the US are raising concerns that a recent rule from President Biden’s administration could preclude them from tapping into $350 billion of coronavirus relief aid to expand high-speed internet connections. The American Rescue Plan includes broadband infrastructure among the primary uses for pandemic aid flowing to each city, county and state. But an interim rule published by the US Treasury Department has narrowed the broadband eligibility. It focuses on areas that lack reliable broadband at the Federal Communications Commission's 2015 standard of download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second and upload speeds of at least 3 Mbps. That threshold ensures funding for remote, rural areas that have slow or no internet service, but while most cities already have broadband available, those speeds still might not be fast enough to handle multiple people in a home trying to work, study and stream entertainment simultaneously. The price also can be more than lower-income residents can afford. Several cities, including Washington, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and San Antonio, have submitted public comments to the Treasury Department urging it to loosen the eligibility standard for spending pandemic relief money on broadband to a 100/100 Mbps threshold. If the Treasury goes forward with its rule as originally written, sparsely populated areas currently lacking broadband could leapfrog certain urban areas in their internet speeds.

Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Rosenworcel sent a letter to Sen Joe Manchin (D-WV) on August 30, 2021 to respond to his letters on the collection of broadband deployment data. Chairwoman Rosenworcel said the FCC has taken steps to improve the accuracy of the data collected, including: formation of the Broadband Data Task Force, issuing a request for information and subsequent request for proposal seeking vendors capable of building the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric, and publication of a new map demonstrating mobile coverage using data from the nation’s largest wireless providers. "On top of these efforts, we are exploring how broader input from consumers can improve the data collected by the agency," said Chairwoman Rosenworcel. "The FCC has released a Public Notice seeking comment on technical rules that will govern the mobile challenge, verification, and crowdsource processes required under the Broadband DATA Act." Chairwoman Rosenworcel wrote that the Task Force has been working to expand consumer outreach efforts with "a new web-based portal for consumers to share their broadband experiences and provide information about their efforts to secure service." On the subject of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund awardees, Chairwoman Rosenworcel reiterated the FCC's efforts to reduce funding redundancy.

Federal Communications Commissioner Nathan Simington provided a keynote address at the University of Colorado’s Silicon Flatirons “Frontiers in Spectrum Sharing” conference. In his remarks, Commissioner Simington examined various models for solving the problem of crowded spectrum: discussing both specific bands and challenges, as well as general concepts of spectrum sharing in current and proposed spectrum sharing regimes. Commissioner Simington said the current spectrum congestion is a good problem to have since it means it is "desirable and heavily used." The commissioner also  acknowledged that a static spectrum allocation system "solves coordination problems from its inception" but at the price of rigidity, while a dynamic system tackles coordination problems on the fly, but "at the cost of operating overhead and limiting the functionality of each shared service." While he conceded that AI and machine learning could improve dynamic spectrum sharing, Simington said that live spectrum sharing using AI/ML would require an ocean of data to train and test such a system, "and it isn’t clear to me where that data will come from."

As public safety leaders and longtime citizens of cities directly impacted on September 11, 2001, frontline workers’ responses deeply affected us. Twenty years ago, the frontline workers who responded to the horrific attacks in New York, Washington (DC) and Pennsylvania were unable to share a simple radio message and communications networks were overwhelmed. Interoperability — the ability of the frontline to communicate with each other even if they use different telecommunications carriers — is critical to allow them to do their jobs safely and effectively and keep Americans safe. It allows first responders to coordinate their actions with full situational awareness of what is happening around them. However, because of technology — and quite frankly, bureaucracy — interoperability has long been a problem in the public safety community. While agencies using the same carrier can communicate within their network, another jurisdiction assisting in the event of a crisis that is on another network cannot. The fact is, agencies must retain the ability to choose their network, and that freedom of choice should not prevent effective communication in an emergency if another jurisdiction is on a different network. First responders risk their lives every day to keep our nation safe. So as a nation, we have a moral obligation to ensure they are afforded every resource — including real interoperability — to protect their safety, so they can protect ours. 

President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Alvaro Bedoya for Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Alvaro Bedoya is the founding director of the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, where he is a visiting professor of law. His research and advocacy focus on the idea that privacy is for everyone. His exposés on the harms of face recognition technology have helped usher the passage of face recognition restrictions across the country, led the National Institute of Standards & Technology to conduct the first comprehensive bias audit of face recognition algorithms, and paved the way for a federal law requiring bias testing in airport face recognition systems, section 1919 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. He also co-led a coalition that successfully pressed an Internet giant to drop ads for online payday loans. Previously, Bedoya served as the first chief counsel to the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law upon the subcommittee’s creation in 2011. As a Senate staffer, Bedoya drafted bipartisan legislation to protect victims of sexual assault, conducted oversight hearings of technology companies, and helped negotiate and draft bipartisan legislation to rein in the National Security Agency.