Internet/Broadband

Pandemic shines ‘great spotlight’ on digital divide

The dual crises of changing census guidelines and the COVID-19 pandemic have shined a “great spotlight” on the impact that lack of access to broadband has in rural communities. “Access to education, access to jobs, it’s one of those areas where the whole partnership between business and government needs to happen, because it’s not going to be cheap,” said Lynden Schuyler, a director for census outreach at the Illinois Public Health Association.

Here’s How Internet Speeds Have Changed During COVID-19

Wyoming internet users have benefited the most from higher broadband speeds during the months of the pandemic, with average download speeds increasing by a whopping 52%. This is likely a result of a statewide push by the Wyoming Broadband Council to improve internet connectivity and speeds to underserved rural populations. Similar state-sponsored initiatives seem to have contributed to speed improvements elsewhere.

Chairman Pai Announces Staff Changes To FCC's Data Team

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced important changes to the FCC’s data team. These changes will aid the FCC’s work in bridging the digital divide and improve the quality and reliability of the data on which the FCC bases its actions. Steve Rosenberg will serve as permanent Chief Data and Analytics Officer for the agency, overseeing implementation of the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act and continuing his work on implementation of the Broadband DATA Act.

What if Facebook Is the Real ‘Silent Majority’?

Listen, liberals. If you don’t think Donald Trump can get re-elected in November, you need to spend more time on Facebook. Since the 2016 election, I’ve been obsessively tracking how partisan political content is performing on Facebook, the world’s largest and arguably most influential media platform. Every morning, one of the first browser tabs I open is CrowdTangle — a handy Facebook-owned data tool that offers a bird’s-eye view of what’s popular on the platform. I check which politicians and pundits are going viral. I geek out on trending topics.

Senators Call on FCC to Bolster Lifeline Program to Keep Students Connected

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) led a group of 25 senators in calling on the Federal Communications Commission to boost its Lifeline program to keep students connected as millions return to school both virtually and in person. Since 1985, the FCC’s Lifeline program has made basic internet and telephone service more affordable for low-income Americans and has had bipartisan support.

How Cities Can Close Digital Divides During Covid — If State Law Doesn’t Stand in the Way

With the end of the federal Keep Americans Connected pledge and the failure of Congress to pass comprehensive broadband aid, it’s clearer than ever before that local governments are the last line of defense against the digital divide, which has been exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. However, in 21 states, legal barriers — often enacted at the behest of corporate telecommunication lobbyists — prevent local governments from investing in community broadband solutions to close the digital divide.

Remote education is forcing the US to confront the digital divide

How did the birthplace of the internet become a nation where broadband is unavailable to large chunks of the population, keeping students from taking part fully in modern education and their parents from taking advantage of the modern economy? Big investments have been made in the internet in the U.S., but not uniformly or with an eye to expanding connectivity as far as possible. It’s not a task that private industry cares to take on, nor is it one that the public sector can solve on its own—not in a country with such a strident free-market ethos.

As Colorado Schools Reopen, Thousands Of Students Still Don’t Have Reliable Internet

 Although 90 percent of Colorado city and suburban districts have high levels of broadband connectivity, only a quarter of the 112 rural districts have high levels of connectivity, and many have low or very low levels, according to an analysis by the Regional Educational Laboratory Central at Centennial-based Marzano Research. 94 percent of the 28,200 students within Mesa County Valley School district have broadband internet (speeds greater than 25 megabits per second).

Give Connexion time to deliver internet service citywide

From where I stand, changing direction on Connexion now would be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The biggest problem with Connexion, the city of Fort Collins' (CO) broadband service, is that the deployment wasn't further along before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Demand for Connexion has risen dramatically since COVID. With demand comes revenue with a short delay while they hook folks up.

Another Non-Geostationary Orbit Satellite Broadband Operator Gets FCC OK for US Operation

The US is set to get another satellite broadband provider that uses a non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) approach. The Federal Communications Commission has approved market access to OneWeb, a NGSO satellite broadband operator that filed for bankruptcy earlier in 2020 but is back in action after receiving an investment from the British government. NGSO operators use constellations of satellites that orbit the earth at lower altitudes in comparison with traditional geostationary satellites.

In remote Alaska, broadband for all remains a dream. So a school district got creative

About as far west as you can go in the US before hitting Russia lies the string of Aleutian Islands. It's where the Discovery Channel's The Deadliest Catch is filmed and where most fish destined for restaurants in the continental US gets processed.  A tiny school system in the region, the Aleutians East Borough School District, educates 230 students across four schools. About 85% of the kids are Alaska Native. Traveling between the four schools requires flights on twin-engine planes or, in one case, a flight followed by a helicopter ride.

As Virtual Learning Resumes In Pandemic, Chicago Groups Plead For Internet For All

Concerned parents and activists gathered in front of Chicago's Englewood neighborhood Comcast branch demanding that the federal government ensure internet access for all children as classrooms nationwide prepare to go virtual. Activists in several cities, including Chicago, Washington D.C., and Oakland participated in #InternetForAll’s national call for action, calling on the Federal Communications Commission and the US Department of Education to address the estimated 15 million students “logged out” across the country.

Jonathan Sallet's Written Statement for the Reimagine New York Commission

The Benton perspective is this: Everyone in America should be able to use High-Performance Broadband, by which I mean broadband connections to the home that are robust and future-proof. Broadband competition is more important than ever because—in our current crises and beyond—America has fast-forwarded into its broadband future. Yet, New York, like the nation, has too little competition in fixed broadband to ensure that all people have the advantage of competitive pricing, quality, customer service, and innovation.

School is starting -- and the broadband gap will be a massive problem

Schools are being forced to tackle the digital divide problem in their districts, becoming experts in complex broadband options seemingly overnight. That's on top of grappling with how to make sure their low-income students are fed and healthy, and navigating archaic regulations controlling how they receive funding.

Facebook Says Apple’s New iPhone Update Will Disrupt Online Advertising

Facebook says privacy changes that Apple has made to its newest operating system will cripple Facebook’s ability to serve targeted ads to iPhone users while they use outside apps. The announcement, which Facebook made in a note to app developers, will affect its Audience Network business, which connects users’ Facebook identities with their off-platform activities. That enables the company to serve them ads on apps outside of Facebook’s. The changes go into effect with Apple’s new operating system for iPhone, called iOS14, which was released in beta form to developers recently.

Tech's 'Nightmare Scenario' for 2020

Social media companies say they’re preparing for a protracted battle against online misinformation come Election Day, particularly given there may not be an immediate winner. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity, said his nightmare scenario for the election is that bad actors use any delays in the outcome to stoke “fear, uncertainty and doubt” online. Unprecedented problems for an unprecedented election: “When we talk about the election, we talk about the leadup to election night, we talk about election day as a pivotal moment. This year is different,” Roth said.

State broadband policy: Impacts on availability

We use a county-level panel dataset from 2012 to 2018 to assess the impacts of various state policies on total and rural broadband availability in the US. The primary dependent variable is the percentage of residents with access to 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 3 Mbps upload speeds via a fixed connection, with alternative specifications considering other aspects of availability such as technology type and competition. We control for the main determinants of Internet availability such as income, education, age, and population density.

Case Study: How Chicago is Providing High-Speed Internet Access to Students who Need it the Most

With the increase in remote learning due to COVID-10, the City of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the philanthropic community, and leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs) recognized a historic opportunity to eliminate broadband accessibility as a barrier to digital learning. On June 25, 2020, Mayor Lori E.

MetroNet Completes Construction of 100% Fiber Optic Network in Lexington, Making It Largest Gigabit City

MetroNet announced the completion of its citywide, 100% fiber-optic network in Lexington (KY), earning Lexington, with a population of 325,000, the title of largest Gigabit City in the US. For the last 2.5 years, MetroNet has been hard at work laying 4.4 million feet of fiber in neighborhoods across the city. Former Mayor Jim Gray set a visionary goal to make Lexington a Gigabit City in 2017, and MetroNet answered that call with a proposal to invest up to $100M.

America’s Moral Obligation for Universal Broadband

As much as the pandemic is a challenge, the urgency it presents also provides an opportunity to finally make significant progress on these digital issues. To get started and provide a framework for future action, I recommend focusing on the following:

Delaware investing $20 million in broadband

Delaware officials announced that $20 million in CARES Act funding is earmarked for high-speed internet expansion, a demand magnified by upcoming remote learning necessitated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. CARES Act funding will be utilized to build out additional infrastructure across Delaware, gather strategic data through a statewide speed survey and acquire equipment and services for families in financial need. Additionally, 15 towers in the current phase of the Rural Wireless Broadband Initiative in Kent and Sussex counties will be completed about four months ahead of schedule.

Frontier Bankruptcy Plan Approved by Bankruptcy Court

The US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved Frontier's bankruptcy plan which will reduce the company’s debt by $10 billion, giving the company what it says it needs to emerge from bankruptcy and position itself for long term growth. Much of the company’s debt was accumulated from high profile acquisitions of Verizon network assets.

We Live Online. Hurricanes and Blackouts Mean Enormous Isolation.

Even as California has escalating rolling blackouts and Iowa has been blasted with storms, an extremely active hurricane season for the United States is only just beginning. It’s not just the loss of electricity Americans fear from these events.

Thousands of Minnesota students still don’t have internet for distance learning

With the start of the school year just around the corner, thousands of Minnesota students still don’t have access to reliable high-speed internet — meaning that many will begin another year of at least part-time distance learning with spotty service or no internet connection at all.  Low-income students, rural students and students of color are disproportionately likely to lack reliable internet access, raising concerns that the digital divide will worsen Minnesota’s educational disparities, which are already some of the worst in the nation. Roughly 25,000 Minnesota students didn’t have com