In their platform, the Democratic Party specifies that the Federal Communications Commission should retain network neutrality as a policy and hold internet service providers accountable. It also pledges to invest “in broadband and 5G technology, including rural and municipal broadband.” The 2016 Republican Party platform, which was extended to include this election cycle, aims “to encourage the sharing economy and on-demand platforms to compete in an open market.” The party wants to make sure that the internet continues to advance through competition-driven innovation. 

But Seth Ervin, the chief innovation officer at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, disagrees with that strategy. “I’m for the free market,” he said. “But I don’t think (internet access) is a commodity anymore.” Ervin works with the Charlotte Digital Inclusion Alliance, which promotes digital access for underserved communities. He sees ties between internet access and socioeconomic mobility, as well as systemic racism. For example, access to the web is necessary to find a job and, during a pandemic, to even have an interview. Children are taking classes online. Patients see their doctors virtually. “The keys to (equal access) are the internet and a computer, period,” Ervin said. “How do you make sure that folks are getting an equal chance to participate in your community?” Nearly one out of every 10 households in Charlotte lacks internet access at home, Ervin said. One in five don’t have a computer.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Sept agenda looks like a well-balanced fantasy team; we’re rolling out a diverse lineup featuring at least one item from each of the FCC’s seven bureaus.

• Building on a rulemaking launched in 2019, I have circulated to my fellow commissioners a Report and Order to remove the secondary, non-federal allocations from the 3.3–3.55 GHz band. We will also vote on seeking comment on further changes to the band to enable future commercial use, such as reallocating the 3.45–3.55 GHz band on a co-primary basis for non-federal fixed and mobile (except aeronautical mobile) services, rules for limited future federal incumbent use of the band, and licensing, operating, and technical rules for commercial operations.
• A second spectrum item is a Report and Order that would give states the opportunity to lease 4.9 GHz band spectrum to commercial entities, electric utilities, and others. 
• On April 4, 2020, the President issued an Executive Order formally establishing the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector. Our International Bureau has prepared a Report and Order to streamline and improve the timeliness and transparency of this inter-agency review process. 
• Our Wireline Competition Bureau has crafted a new Order to take the next steps toward STIR/SHAKEN implementation.
• Our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has crafted a Notice of Inquiry seeking comment on the effects of 911 fee diversion and exploring additional steps the FCC or others could take to discourage states from diverting 911 fees.
• Our Media Bureau has led the Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative, and its two latest offerings are on our Sept agenda. The first seeks to make sure consumers are accurately informed rather than confused when there are disputes between video programmers and cable operators. The second item is an Order to eliminate our rule requiring that cable operators maintain in their online public inspection file information regarding their attributable interests in video programming services and their carriage of vertically programming on systems in which they have an attributable interest. 
• The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau has crafted an Order to bring expenditures for the Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service  (IP CTS) service more in line with costs, preserving the viability of IP CTS for those people with hearing loss who need it.

5G may hold promise for the years ahead — but across most of America in 2020, a 5G phone does diddly squat. Testing 5G phones, I’ve been clocking download speeds that are roughly the same as on 4G LTE ones. And in some places, like inside my house and along the California highway, my 5G phones actually have been slower. Your experience with a 5G phone in 2020 is likely to be all over the map. I got searing fast 750 Mbps downloads from AT&T in one corner of downtown. But in the same spot, my 4G phone got an also extremely fast 330 Mbps. Moreover, because of the pandemic, those aren’t places I go very often. As I write this from my home office in the middle of San Francisco, I’m getting 11 Mbps downloads on my AT&T 5G phone. On T-Mobile, I get a laughable 8 Mbps on 5G, which is barely enough to stream HD Netflix.

For now at least, the three big US carriers are not charging extra fees to access 5G. But they do require you to buy a new smartphone to use the new network. And for most people, today’s 5G just isn’t a good reason to upgrade. It’s like buying a sports car and then realizing it can’t go over 65 mph very often. You’re stuck in the slow lane while faster ones are built.

The Federal Communications Commission released the results of its efforts to identify use of Huawei and ZTE equipment and services in US telecommunications networks that receive support from the federal Universal Service Fund. The FCC’s Nov 2019 order barring the use of USF support for the purchase of equipment and services from companies that pose a national security threat initially designated Huawei and ZTE as covered entities and directed FCC staff to conduct this information collection. In June 2020, the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau issued final designations of Huawei and ZTE as posing national security threats to the integrity of communications networks. Sept 4’s announcement includes a list of eligible telecommunications carriers, or their affiliates and subsidiaries, that have reported using at least some Huawei and ZTE equipment or services in their networks.

Based on data FCC staff collected through the information collection, all filers report it could cost an estimated $1.837 billion to remove and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment in their networks. Of that total, filers that appear to initially qualify for reimbursement under the Secure and Trusted Communications Network Act of 2019 report it could require approximately $1.618 billion to remove and replace such equipment. Other providers of advanced communications service may not have participated in the information collection and yet still be eligible for reimbursement under the terms of that Act.

The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) released the Rural Action Plan, the first HHS-wide assessment of rural healthcare efforts in more than 18 years and the product of HHS’s Rural Task Force, a group of experts and leaders across the department first put together by Secretary Alex Azar in 2019. The plan lays out a four-point strategy to transform rural health and human services, with a number of actions that can be launched within weeks or months. Leveraging tech and innovation was one of the strategies, which includes:

• Supporting a new HHS Health Challenge to leverage technology to improve screening and management of post-partum depression for rural women.
• Providing more than $8 million in grant funding for the Telehealth Network Grant Program to provide emergency care consults via telehealth to rural providers without emergency care specialists.
• Developing new flexibility for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to improve access to managed care options in rural areas through changes in network adequacy assessments for MA plans and to take into account the impact of telehealth providers in contracted networks.

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior counselor to the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said there are multiple challenges with implementing telehealth across the nation. Many initiatives for robust telehealth programs need fast bandwidth, yet getting the money and setting up the necessary infrastructure is very difficult, he said. “It will be a long time before this kind of technology will be readily available to much of the country,” he said.