The US broadband and media industries are increasingly becoming consolidated, deregulated and freed of accountability, with little attention either from policymakers or the media. While Mexico is moving forward -- having recently developed new institutions and regulations intended to promote competition and accountability in telecommunications and media, the US is moving backwards. Competition in broadband and media in the US is vanishing as a result of decisions, big and small, by the Trump Administration. 

[Gigi B. Sohn is a Distinguished Fellow, Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy and Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate]

Lawmakers are trying to find ways to provide broadband service to people living in rural areas of Georgia. But that plan might be on hold. Federal Communications Commission data showed the limited reach of broadband, but a second look by Georgia has shown the data is all wrong. Georgia's Department of Community Affairs did its own broadband mapping, counting down to each customer with data from individual broadband providers. Georgia’s new statewide map is expected to be done by the summer of 2020. 

The city of Morgantown (WV) and DBI Networks LLC, doing business as ClearFiber, have reached a settlement in the lawsuit filed on June 4 by the fiber-optic Internet service provider. The suit, which was filed in US District Court, accused the city denying access to public rights-of-way by refusing to issue a license agreement, resulting in prohibition of service, bar to entry, discriminatory management of public rights of way, and a violation of due process. The settlement amends the non-exclusive franchise agreement the parties executed in April 2017 and describes the application process ClearFiber must complete prior to working in the public right-of-way, and lays out a change in franchise fees — from 5% of gross revenues to 25 cents per linear foot of cable placed in the public right-of-way.

The Federal Communications Commission has learned that Sprint claimed monthly subsidies for serving approximately 885,000 Lifeline subscribers, even though those subscribers were not using the service. That would be a violation of a key rule—the “non-usage” rule—designed to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the Lifeline program. The 885,000 subscribers represent nearly 30% of Sprint’s Lifeline subscriber base and nearly 10% of the entire Lifeline program’s subscriber base. The non-usage rule requires Lifeline providers of “free” service to de-enroll subscribers who don’t use their phones—a rule meant to protect Lifeline from wasting payments on service not provided. The FCC developed this and other rules after investigations showed that companies hawked free Lifeline service aggressively and indiscriminately, knowing that they would get paid each month even if consumer didn’t use their phones. And because the consumer paid nothing, he or she had no incentive to relinquish the subscription. Under the non-usage rule, providers of free service may only be reimbursed for a Lifeline subscriber if that subscriber has used the service at least once in the past 30 days. Providers must de-enroll inactive subscribers after giving them 15 days’ notice. Program-wide, the rule resulted in approximately 3.1 million de-enrollments in 2018. Sprint’s apparent disregard of the non-usage rule initially came to light as a result of an investigation by the Oregon Public Utility Commission.

The Senate Antitrust Subcommittee heard from various parties on whether Big Tech companies have been allowed to become serial innovation killers, buying up tech start-up competitors before those competitors are large enough to raise red flags with regulators. A Federal Trade Commission witness said the agency was definitely retrospectively reviewing such "killer acqs" (acquisitions), and could break up or shake up already-merged companies if that is the appropriate structural remedy. 

Subcommittee Chairman Mike Lee (R-UT) said that over-enforcement is not a "cost-free" proposition. He conceded that some mergers may be for anticompetitive reasons, but because they can't see the future, it is difficult to predict in advance which deals should be blocked--Instagram, for example, versus some similar effort that does not gain traction. Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Bruce Hoffman, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, agreed that some of the tech issues they were discussing sounded and looked like the kinds of anticompetititive practices in the Microsoft antitrust case. Sen Blumenthal pointed out he was a key player in that Microsoft investigation. One of the Microsoft remedies was interoperability, and not just internet browsers.  

US mobile operators are launching 5G networks in a multitude of cities, with urban smartphone users now experiencing some of the fastest real-world mobile download speeds to date to build on the existing state of US mobile experience. However, many rural users will likely have to wait several years before they see a 5G connection even with moves to launch 5G on lower frequency bands. In the meantime, rural users will have to settle for connecting to legacy 4G and 3G networks.

• Opensignal users on Verizon’s network experienced the highest 4G Availability across the rural U.S. Unlike users on other carriers, our Verizon users on average connected to 4G more than 80% of the time in all types of rural locales from Fringe to Remote.

• Opensignal’s users on AT&T and T-Mobile's networks enjoyed a faster Download Speed Experience across the rural U.S. than users on other carriers, including Verizon. In the Distant and Remote rural areas AT&T users experienced average download speeds of 15 Mbps and 14.6 Mbps respectively compared with 13.8 Mbps and 12.3 Mbps for users on Verizon.

• Our users on Verizon’s network saw the fastest Upload Speed Experience across all types of rural locales compared with users connecting with AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint. Verizon users experienced speeds of 5.4 Mbps, 3.7 Mbps and 3.7 Mbps in Fringe, Distant and Remote rural areas.

• Across all of the rural US, our AT&T users on average experienced lower latencies than their peers on other networks. Even small latency differences affect the experience of real-time applications like multiplayer games. For example, our Verizon rural users experienced latencies between 3.7 and 4.5 milliseconds slower compared with users on AT&T in rural locales, while our T-Mobile users’ latencies were between 4.9 and 8.8 milliseconds slower.

• Across the rural U.S. Sprint users had a weaker mobile network experience in all of our metrics compared with our users on other networks. After the T-Mobile-Sprint merger completes, the new company will aim to transition rural Sprint users to a stronger experience — Opensignal will monitor how the new company’s mobile experience changes.