Thursday, September 23, 2021
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Emergency Broadband Benefit Program Program Sign-Ups Lag Amid Lack of Outreach Funds
Diverse Infrastructure Solutions Are the Key to Closing the Digital Divide
Digital Inclusion
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Digital Inclusion
Billions of dollars aimed at helping low-income households afford internet access are going unclaimed as the Federal Communications Commission faces hurdles to enrolling participants in the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. FCC officials and their nonprofit partners have to marshal resources for outreach to help individuals understand how the program works and overcome mistrust of government. Nonprofits and local organizations are best suited to enroll low-income individuals because they are trusted in those communities, agency officials and partners said. However, many FCC partners are already operating with small budgets and face pandemic-related financial challenges. The FCC and its partners would be getting the word out faster if Congress had allocated outreach money for agency partners, FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said. The pending infrastructure package is another chance for lawmakers to create that funding, she added. “Time and time again, we heard that the success of the program could be improved if there was funding to support the efforts of community-based organizations that spend time providing in-person assistance for families not familiar with federal assistance programs, interacting with internet service providers, or educating low-income households about the technology necessary to sign up for the EBB Program,” Chairwoman Rosenworcel said
In less than three months, nearly 800,000 low-income people who receive telephone subsidies through the Universal Service Fund's Lifeline program will be negatively impacted by changes scheduled to go into effect at the Federal Communications Commission on December 1, 2021. The FCC needs to change course and help more Americans keep connected to communications services that are essential to navigate the ongoing public health and economic crisis. Most importantly, the FCC should act swiftly and hit the pause button on the 2016 plan to zero-out support for voice-only services. During the pandemic, the stakes are just too high for anyone to be disconnected from essential communications networks. Then the FCC should launch a new effort to reform and further modernize the Lifeline program, informed by what we've witnessed during COVID, and the findings in Grant Thornton's and the FCC's own recent review of the Lifeline program.
- Lifeline needs to have foundational governance documents—such as strategic plans, performance objectives, and an integrated communications plan—to assist in the longitudinal success and guidance of the program.
- The FCC has to consider raising Lifeline's monthly subsidy, $9.25, so it can make more meaningful services affordable for low-income families.
- The FCC must adopt changes in the program so it better benefits the people it was created to connect. This includes understanding the composition of Lifeline households and the specific services they need, finding ways to improve program enrollment, and providing opportunities for consumer feedback.
- Changes in the Lifeline program should encourage all telecommunications and broadband service providers to compete to serve low-income households in their service areas.
- The FCC should also consider revising its measure of affordability of broadband for low-income consumers. We need the FCC to act now to keep everyone connected. And we need the FCC to update the Lifeline program so everyone can rely on a basic level of connectivity no matter how much income they have.
[Adrianne B. Furniss is the Executive Director of the Benton Foundation.]
In response to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau has waived certain Lifeline program rules in eight previous orders to provide necessary relief for low-income households. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be felt by many Americans. The importance of access to affordable communications services for low-income consumers has been underscored by the pandemic and its long-lasting impact. Accordingly, the bureau finds good cause to extend, on its own motion, the prior waivers of the Lifeline program rules governing documentation requirements for subscribers residing in rural areas on Tribal lands, reverification, recertification, general de-enrollment, and income documentation through December 31, 2021.
The Federal Communications Commission is partnering with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) to acknowledge Lifeline Awareness Week, September 20-24, 2021. Lifeline is an FCC program designed to help make communications services more affordable for low-income consumers. The program provides up to a $9.25 monthly discount on qualifying voice and broadband services for eligible low-income subscribers and up to $34.25 per month for subscribers on qualifying Tribal lands. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the new Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program is also available to help families and households struggling to afford internet service. Households that qualify for Lifeline also qualify for the Emergency Broadband Benefit. In most cases, they simply need to opt-in with their current Lifeline provider or contact a different participating provider and choose an eligible plan to start receiving the monthly benefit. To learn more about Lifeline support, go here. Consumers can find Emergency Broadband Benefit application information here.
In view of outstanding demand, the Federal Communications Commission will open a second Emergency Connectivity Fund application filing window from September 28, 2021 to October 13, 2021. During the second application filing window, as in the first, eligible schools and libraries can request funding for equipment and services for off-campus use by students, school staff, and library patrons with unmet needs during the current 2021-22 school year. While many schools and libraries timely submitted their applications, a number of applicants certified and submitted their ECF FCC Forms 471 after the August 13 deadline. The Wireline Competition Bureau directed the Universal Service Administrative Company to review and process these late-filed applications during the second application filing window in accordance with Program rules and requirements. The late-filed applicants will not be required to resubmit their applications, nor will they need to file a request for waiver of the initial 45-day application filing deadline with the FCC. The FCC expects all applicants will now have sufficient time to file their applications by the second filing deadline on October 13, 2021, and does not expect to grant waivers of the second deadline except under extraordinary circumstances.
The digital divide has remained stubbornly persistent for decades, even as the internet has become steadily more inextricable from daily life, business, health care, and education. Research group BroadbandNow estimates that 42 million Americans have no broadband access, while a depressing 120 million people in the US are without any connection fast enough to even call the internet, according to Microsoft. These disparities are particularly severe among Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and rural communities. In denser towns, it's more economical to deliver broadband over fiber-optic cables, the industry's gold standard for speed and reliability. However, it can still be way too expensive in rural areas. Local broadband providers are turning to Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), a wireless spectrum historically used by US Navy aircraft carriers for radar transmissions. In recent years the Federal Communications Commission has opened a slice of this spectrum for commercial use, enabling providers to beam broadband as far as 6 miles over signal stations—installed atop cell towers, barns, even prisons—that are sort of like massive Wi-Fi routers. CBRS is fast enough to stream movies and costs a fraction of what fiber costs to build. Yet the messy reality of the digital divide is that a mix of physical and wireless networks would be cheaper and more practical than some one-size-fits-all solution. The US is full of diverse communities and regions, and each requires its own custom infrastructure plan to make broadband available and affordable.
The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) has sent a letter to the governors of all 50 states asking them to ignore a prohibition against using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) broadband funding for fixed wireless deployments. The prohibition is included in the interim rules issued by the US Treasury for $350 billion in ARPA funding directed to state and local governments. Those rules call for broadband funding to be directed to wired technologies. Considering that Treasury traditionally hasn’t been involved in broadband, it is possible that the drafters of the interim rules simply meant to exclude funding from being used toward mobile, but not fixed wireless, service. The rules also call for service to support speeds of at least 100 Mbps except where that speed is “impractical because of topography, geography or cost.” Aiken urged the governors to take a “technology-neutral approach to deploying advanced communication infrastructure for your constituents.” WISPA members, he said, “utilize a variety of technologies based on the needs of the communities they service, taking a variety of factors into account including cost, deployment time, terrain and population density. Simply put, [they] utilize the best technology for the job.” The interim rules for ARPA state and local broadband funding also could make areas served by fixed wireless internet service providers (WISPs) vulnerable to overbuilding by competitors – even if the WISPs offer relatively high-speed service.
Experts have concluded that Virginia is a national leader in bridging the digital divide. Virginia's success in broadband can be attributed to several factors: the governor’s consistent prioritization of broadband, bipartisan support and funding from the General Assembly, an efficient and successful Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) program and enabling electric utilities to deploy middle-mile infrastructure. This framework will deliver universal broadband throughout the commonwealth and it is a model for many other states in our nation. Virginia addressed the unfortunate fact that it’s expensive to deploy and operate telecommunication infrastructure in rural areas. Virginia and several local governments have leveraged hundreds of millions in public funds to help build last-mile connections between rural residences and nearby infrastructure. The state’s flagship VATI program continues to support broadband deployment in hard-to-serve parts of the state. Another critical step Virginia has taken involves empowering electric utilities to be part of the solution, enacting legislation to give electric utilities the flexibility to build middle-mile fiber that connects communities to the core of the network. It also established a three-year pilot project in which Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power could lease excess fiber capacity to broadband providers aiming to reach unserved communities. I can say without reservation that Virginia is leading the pack in establishing a framework for what I like to call “digital opportunity” for all its citizens.
[Ajit Pai, a Virginia resident, is a partner at Searchlight Capital Partners, which is investing in a Virginia broadband provider. He served as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 2017 to 2021.]
At the Federal Communications Commission, we are focusing on five key principles to help guide our 5G future.
- We are freeing up more spectrum—and especially mid-band spectrum—for 5G. I believe our pivot to mid-band spectrum will be a game changer for 5G in the United States. It will foster more competition, wider coverage, and better performance—and up next is our auction next month of prime mid-band spectrum in the 3.45-3.55 GHz band.
- We are expanding the reach of fiber facilities. Our wireless networks will only be as good as the wired connections that help make them work. I’m particularly pleased that building more broadband is at the heart of the legislative discussions we are having about infrastructure in this county.
- We are diversifying the equipment in our networks. This is how we will return the United States to a position of strength and leadership in the market for 5G equipment. Open and interoperable equipment is the future, and we are taking action to ensure that Open RAN technology is being built here and now.
- We are building security and resiliency in our supply chains. We're taking direct action to keep untrusted equipment and vendors out of our networks. We are working on a program to replace this equipment to the extent that it is present in our domestic networks today. And we are making adjustments to the FCC’s equipment authorization process to help prevent insecure equipment from ever reaching our shores and to encourage better security practices across the board.
- We are fostering American leadership in setting the technology standards of the future. I believe it is imperative that the United States government invest the resources necessary to lead in international standards development processes because when we do, we can lead the world. Greater participation in these efforts means more innovation at international scale and broader support for the democratizing possibilities of access to modern communications.
Small wireless carriers expressed dissatisfaction and concern about several aspects of their business at the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) Annual Convention. They’re concerned that digital-divide money will all go toward fiber, that Universal Service Funds (USF) are drying up, that their spectrum needs are being ignored, and that they’ve missed the boat on private wireless. It would seem intuitive that small wireless carriers would reap some of the benefits of the coming federal funding bonanza to close the digital divide since they oftentimes serve rural markets, but the operators noted that much of the funding from the government is geared toward deploying fiber. CCA members also expressed frustration about the allocation of spectrum in the US. They have had opportunities to buy more spectrum lately through the CBRS and C-Band auctions, and there are some upcoming auctions of 2.5 GHz and 3.45 GHz as well, but carrier executives complained that the partial economic areas (PEAs) that the FCC often uses for spectrum auctions do not work for smaller operators. They can’t afford to buy geographically large PEAs, especially where big portions of the PEA aren't in their coverage area. When asked if they were launching any private wireless offerings, CEO of Nsight–Cellcom Mark Nazé said “a number of things have to intersect for there to be good opportunity” in private wireless where the capital investments align with customer demand in various industries.
Although he’d be all for it, former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler is doubtful that a new spectrum screen would be implemented anytime soon, including before upcoming 5G mid-band spectrum auctions. AT&T filed a petition in September 2021 asking the FCC to establish a mid-band spectrum screen, pointing to T-Mobile’s vast 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum holdings thanks in large part to its merger with Sprint. A spectrum screen is basically designed so that no single carrier ends up with an unfair competitive advantage due to the amount of spectrum it holds. Screens have been in place for years, but AT&T wants one that specifically addresses mid-band spectrum, which is increasingly important in 5G. Wheeler recalls when AT&T and Verizon were the targets of a spectrum screen ahead of the 600 MHz incentive auction, and ultimately, the FCC put a screen in place. For mid-band 5G, a spectrum screen should have been addressed by the Trump FCC when they were dealing with opening up the 3.45 GHz, according to Wheeler. Now, “I think it would be virtually impossible before the 3.45 [auction] and extremely difficult and hazardous before the 2.5, depending on when they schedule the auction,” he said.
The way that Facebook controls its News Feed is often controversial and largely opaque to the outside world. Now the company is attempting to shine more light on the content it surpresses but doesn't remove entirely. Facebook published its “Content Distribution Guidelines” detailing the roughly three-dozen types of posts it demotes for various reasons in the News Feed, like clickbait and posts by repeat policy offenders. That process, which relies heavily on machine learning technology to automatically detect problematic content, effectively throttles the reach of offending posts and comments without the author knowing. There’s still plenty that the guidelines, which Facebook has mostly confirmed in various reports over the years but is just now publishing for the first time in one place, don’t say. They don’t detail exactly how a demotion works and exactly how much it reduces a piece of content’s reach. Or how severely a certain kind of post, like a link to spam, is throttled in the News Feed relative to a post about health misinformation, for example.
Comcast hasn’t been shy about touting its network investments on the road to DOCSIS 4.0, but CEO Brian Roberts argued its efforts to innovate around devices and services are also a key part of its plan to fend off broadband competition. Roberts observed that the way consumers use broadband today is “virtually unrecognizable” from ten years ago and said the pace of change is likely to accelerate. He added Comcast is attempting to stay ahead of the game with forward-thinking developments around in-home services like Wi-Fi and TV. He highlighted the operator’s development of a feature which allows users of its XiFi Wi-Fi mesh pods to pause their connectivity, stating customers used this tool 60 million times already in 2021. Roberts pointed to the company’s launch of a new, Wi-Fi 6-capable global streaming box called the XiOne as another example of its product focus. “Our strategy is to take these 31 million [broadband] relationships and deepen them” with top tier Wi-Fi, streaming and mobile products," he concluded. “We’re innovating and we’ve shifted our whole technology focus to broadband in homes and I think it’s really paying off.”
There might be a business case for AT&T to deploy fiber to more than the 30 million locations that the company aims to make fiber broadband available to by 2025, said AT&T CEO John Stankey. Defining the business model for fiber deployment may not be as clear cut as some might believe, Stankey suggested. Another impending development that could impact the fiber deployment business case, according to the CEO, is the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that passed the Senate and will become law if adopted by the House and signed into law by President Biden. If that happens, Stankey said it will “change the landscape of the broadband business in this country. And it will also change my posture and point of view of where we should be playing as a company. And as a result of that, I would lean into it. And I’d probably be coming back to you and say . . . 30 isn’t the right number.” The 30-million AT&T fiber location forecast that the company has set for 2025 represents about half of the locations in the company’s local service footprint, according to Goldman Sachs Group Equity Analyst Brett Joseph Feldman. Stankey has stated that almost 80 percent of fiber net additions are new to AT&T.
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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