On April 9, Reps David Trone (D-MD), Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), John Sarbanes (D-MD), Andy Harris (R-MD), Anthony Brown (D-MD, and James Raskin (D-MD) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai about the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), particularly calling to revise eligibility for the program so that states with existing investments to build out their capacity are not disqualified from receiving RDOF funding.

On Sept 1, Chairman Pai responded by saying, "Given our goal not to duplicate funding targeted to a particular area, if a service provider has state-based funding and a commitment to deploy 25/3 Mbps or better service in one area, it cannot receive FCC funding to deliver similar service to that same area. But it would still be eligible to participate in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund in other areas in the state that are unserved and not covered by a funding commitment." He went on to note that, "In total, fewer than 1% of the census blocks initially deemed eligible for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction were removed due to state broadband funding programs (for Maryland, only 421 locations were removed due to such programs—40,406 remain eligible), so this restriction had an extremely limited impact on the areas eligible for the auction that will begin in October."

Mainers are sharing their stories of poor internet access as part of an effort to get the Federal Communications Commission to update its map to more accurately reflect the inadequacy of internet service in many areas of the country, particularly rural areas. Two consumer-oriented groups, the Rural Assembly and the Broadband Connects America Coalition, are gathering the stories to include in public comments to the FCC. The need for an accurate broadband map is even greater now that so many Mainers are working, studying or seeking health care services from home during the coronavirus pandemic, said one Maine official promoting the effort. Peggy Schaffer, executive director of the ConnectMaine Authority, is particularly interested in having Mainers share stories that fall into two categories: First, locations that the FCC map shows as being served at 25/3 levels (at least 25 megabits per second download and 3 Mbps upload) but in fact are not; and second, those who have a 25/3 connection but it’s proving inadequate when two or more people are at home using the connection. “The FCC doesn’t usually hear a lot of stories about people,” she said. “They get numbers.”

A dispute has erupted over a $2.5 million POWER grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission that would deliver high-speed broadband to Huntington, West Virginia. Huntington Mayor Steve Williams says Comcast and corporate telecommunications lobbyists are actively trying to stop the city from receiving the grant funding for its “Thundercloud” project. “Unfortunately, we are learning that Comcast, which only provides a fraction of the level of high-speed broadband that they claim to provide, is actively trying to torpedo this project and our grant application,” Mayor Williams said. “At a critical time when we are trying to improve high-speed broadband and the economic outlook of our community, Comcast is attempting to squash us like a bug.” However, Mark Polen, director of government relations and advocacy with LGCR Government Solutions LLC, a subsidiary of the law firm of Lewis Glasser Casey & Rollins PLLC, in Charleston, who serves as executive director of the West Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association, which represents the state’s major cable broadband providers, including Comcast and others, said it was the ARC that reached out to providers.

Lawmakers from both parties sharply criticized Google over its dominance in advertising at a Senate hearing that showcased the arguments likely to play out if the government moves to sue the tech giant for anticompetitive practices. The senators were particularly focused on Google’s dominant position at every step in the chain of technology that connects web publishers with advertisers, and on the ways Google has used the market power it wields through its own services like search and YouTube to extend its hold over this third-party ecosystem. Several of them asked about Google’s decision to restrict access to YouTube ad inventory to those using its own ad-buying tools, as well other practices that harnessed advertisers’ hunger for YouTube to advantage Google’s ad tools. Don Harrison, Google’s president of global partnerships and corporate development, said the online advertising market was filled with competition since publishers and advertisers often use multiple services at the same time for buying and selling ads. He repeatedly mentioned that online ad prices have fallen 40% since 2010.

President Donald Trump, pressing for new social media regulations, plans to nominate a senior administration official to be a member of the Federal Communications Commission. The nomination of Nathan Simington, a senior adviser at the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, comes after the White House abruptly announced in early August it was withdrawing the nomination of FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly to serve another term. President Trump issued an executive order in May requiring the NTIA to petition the FCC asking the commission to impose new regulations on social media moderation practices. Simington helped draft the May executive order. By contrast, Commissioner O’Rielly expressed skepticism about whether the FCC had authority to issue new regulations covering social media companies. NTIA asked the FCC to limit protections for social media companies under Section 230, a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that shields social media companies from liability for content posted by their users and allows them to remove lawful but objectionable posts.