Internet/Broadband

Infrastructure discrimination is where lower-income neighborhoods tend not to have the same quality of technology as more affluent neighborhoods. Price discrimination is where cable companies have started to price broadband differently by neighborhood based on demographics. But a more basic element of price discrimination also needs to be recognized.

Broadband adoption is a determinant of health that intersects with other sociological determinants such as education and employment. Due to the rising reliance on digital technology, lack of broadband adoption prevents individuals from accessing the essential resources needed to fully participate in 21st century educational and employment opportunities. Vulnerable populations experience greater impacts of divestment, and therefore experience greater sociological stressors and worse health outcomes.

In a reference to all the attention and funding that is being focused on rural broadband, NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said, “We need to be making hay while the sun is shining.” Bloomfield highlighted two new initiatives aimed at helping members make hay.

Evan Feinman, director of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, said states have the opportunity to correct some of the deficiencies of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map by running their own challenge process. He noted, for example, that “communities will be able to bring forward large numbers of speed tests” – a move that could address concerns about the accuracy of the availability data that service providers are reporting.

The Federal Communications Commission, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) (collectively, the Agencies) entered into an interagency agreement to share information and coordinate for the distribution of funds for broadband deployment. The FCC’s experience with the Interagency Agreement, as well as the record, demonstrate that the Interagency Agreement has significantly facilitated efficient use of federal funds for broadband deployment.

As the collection of personal information by internet companies is encroaching more and more on the privacy of every American, US Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and US Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI)  introduced legislation to strengthen online privacy protections for children when websites collect their personally identifiable information.

US Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and John Thune (R-SD) reintroduced the Internet Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency (Internet PACT) Act, bipartisan legislation which updates the Communications Act of 1934 by requiring social media companies to establish clear content moderation policies and holding them accountable for the content that violates their own policies or is illegal. There is widespread bipartisan agreement that social media platforms have inconsistent and opaque content moderation practices due to a lack of accountability.

US Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced two bills to protect kids online and prevent harm by social media companies. The 

President Joe Biden called on Congress during his State of the Union address to pass legislation that would prevent operators from levying so-called “junk fees.” That’s unlikely to actually happen, but similar ideas could be adopted at the state level and operators will be left looking for new ways to pass on costs to consumers. The details of the Junk Fee Prevention Act have yet to be released.

Peter Dresslar, a broadband and digital equity consultant for both the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and American Samoa, is of two minds. While he knows that the Federal Communications Commission is working as hard as it can to deliver accurate broadband maps to the country, some of the oversights in the mapping of the Pacific Territories have been darkly comic.