Universal Service Fund

Remarks of FCC Commissioner Starks at Telephone Town Hall with Rep. Clarke on the Role of Technology in the Face of COVID-19

When public health requires social distancing and quarantine, closing the digital divide becomes central to our collective safety and economic security. In particular, we should leverage the Federal Communications Commission’s $8 billion in universal service funding, and focus our efforts on students and vulnerable, struggling Americans. Each week, as millions more Americans apply for unemployment and food assistance programs - - the FCC needs to enhance its Lifeline program, the only federal program with the sole mission of bringing affordable communications to low-income Americans and a c

Sponsor: 

Federal Communications Commission

Date: 
Tue, 05/05/2020 - 21:00 to 22:30

This free webinar will provide an overview of the adopted policy framework for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction (Auction 904), the proposed procedures for applications and bidding in the auction, and tips for service providers that are interested in applying to participate in the auction. Additionally, the webinar will focus on opportunities for small businesses to participate and win funding in Auction 904.



Affordable Broadband Needed for Public Health, Economic Security

In a letter to Congressional leadership, over 80 groups urged Congress to provide a low-income broadband benefit as part of the forthcoming Phase 4 COVID-19 package. The groups are seeking $2 to 3 billion per month for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency to support access to broadband that is adequate to meet the needs of multiple people sheltering-in-place while working and learning via video technology simultaneously. To ensure essential communications service, the proposal includes:

Rep Lawrence, Sens Stabenow and Peters Lead Bicameral Letter to Congressional Leadership on Broadband Access Amid Outbreak

The entire Democratic Michigan delegation urged Congressional Leadership to prioritize and provide funding for essential broadband programs to ensure all Americans, especially those most in need, have access to high-speed internet in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Congress considers priorities in the next COVID-19 relief package, the Members of Congress urged the inclusion of robust funding for the following provisions/programs to ensure Americans across the country have access to high-speed internet:

‘We Can Do Better’: One Plan to Erase America’s Digital Divide

Susan Crawford, a Harvard Law School professor, says the root of the digital divide is that big companies like AT&T and Comcast both control the internet pipelines and charge us to gain access to them. They don’t have an incentive to build affordable internet everywhere.

Why E-rate Should Fund Home Broadband During COVID-19

The lack of affordable residential broadband reflects a failure of US broadband policy. The National Broadband Plan of 2010 called for ubiquitous, affordable, high-speed broadband for all by the year 2020. Depending on which measure you use, the U.S. has fallen short by 10% to 50%. We are now suffering the consequences – residential broadband is often slow, expensive, and not universally available.

Improving access: FCC will provide better mapping of underserved areas

A new law requires the Federal Communications Commission to provide better, more accurate maps of broadband internet availability across the United States. The goal of the new law is to ensure federal funding for rural broadband internet service in areas that today lack this 21st century necessity — a need that has become all the more urgent amid the stay-at-home orders resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

FCC Seeks Comment on Charter Rural Digital Opportunity Eligible Areas Waiver

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau -- in coordination with the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force and the Office of Economics and Analytics -- seeks comment on a petition filed by Charter Communications requesting waiver of the FCC’s census block eligibility criteria for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction in order to exclude from eligibility census blocks in New York in which Charter will deploy broadband service to satisfy its commitments to the state.

WC Docket Nos. 10-90, 19-126

FCC Authorizes $2.6 Million for Gigabit-Speed Broadband in Northwestern Pennsylvania

The Federal Communications Commission authorized $2,642,413 in funding over ten years to expand broadband in rural northwestern Pennsylvania. With this tranche of FCC support, Armstrong Telecommunications has committed to providing broadband at speeds of at least 1 Gbps/500 Mbps to an estimated 1,949 unserved rural homes and businesses in Crawford, Erie, and Mercer counties.

Illinois Office of Broadband Seeks Reconsideration of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Order

The Illinois Office of Broadband filed a petition for reconsideration of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) order, asking the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its decision to forego federal-state partnership on broadband deployment, asserting a partnership would help coordinate state and federal broadband investment to maximize efficiency and minimize duplication. Illinois also asked the FCC to reconsider its decision to continue to treat broadband offering 25/3 Mbps service as a viable minimum, and make 50/5 Mbps the threshold for support in the RDOF auction.

830 Groups Urge Congress to Halt Broadband, Electricity and Water Shutoffs in Next COVID-19 Relief Bill

830 utility-justice, environmental, faith, digital-rights and civil-rights groups sent a letter to Congress calling for the next congressional COVID-19 relief package to include a moratorium on broadband, electricity and water shutoff. The letter also calls for stimulus funds to address the systemic issues that lead to shutoffs. These issues include racial and economic inequities that can be addressed with improved affordable broadband programs including Lifeline; distributed solar energy; and percentage-of-income water-affordability initiatives.

Monopoly ISPs Too Big to Make Good on Covid-19 Internet Offers

Many national Internet service providers (ISPs) have introduced free and discounted plans to keep people connected during the crisis (though there are still holdouts). The charity of these companies is commendable, but their plans still leave many people disconnected, forcing them to choose between staying safe at home and accessing essential services. Eligibility oversights leave out households in need, and overwhelmed call centers make signing up for programs difficult.

Why is Microsoft Advocating for Gigabit Fixed Wireless? Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Comments Reveal Interest

Could Microsoft be planning gigabit fixed wireless deployments – perhaps through service provider partners participating in the company’s Airband rural broadband program?

CCA statement on the FCC's “Working Toward the 5G Fund for Rural America: Option A Eligibility Analysis”

Unfortunately, the FCC is publishing eligibility maps that bear little relationship to where there is or is not actually coverage. The analysis itself notes that the maps released April 9 may bear little resemblance to the areas actually available for funding in an auction, which is extremely concerning. At a time when everyone is recognizing the importance of bridging the digital divide, the FCC seems intent on moving forward with spending $9 billion without bothering to measure the scope of the problem they are purporting to solve.

Chairman Pai Response Regarding Connectivity During COVID-19 Pandemic

On March 19, 2020, Reps Darren Soto (D-FL), Jared Huffman (D-CA), and Donald Payne, Jr. (D-NJ) wrote Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to urge his full consideration of policies that would protect Americans' access to communications services by ensuring that no one gets their cell phone, landline, or internet access disconnected during the COVID-19 national emergency.

Reps Eshoo and Young Introduce Bill to Expand Telehealth During Pandemic

House Health Subcommittee Chairwoman Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) and Rep Don Young (R-AK) introduced H.R. 6474, the Healthcare Broadband Expansion During COVID-19 Act, a bipartisan bill to provide $2 billion to expand telehealth and high-quality internet connectivity at public and nonprofit healthcare facilities, including mobile clinics and temporary health facilities deployed to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Healthcare providers pay an average of over $40,000 per year for broadband connectivity.

When School Is Online, the Digital Divide Grows Greater

This digital divide has always left children and adults alike with fewer educational and economic opportunities. But with schools, libraries, and workplaces closed during the coronavirus pandemic, those without broadband are struggling to access schoolwork, job listings, unemployment benefit applications, and video chat services that others use to keep in touch with friends and family. For those on the wrong side of the digital divide, working from home isn’t an option.

New America Urges FCC to Authorize $2.2 Billion in Available E-Rate Funds to Connect Students Left Behind During COVID-19 Pandemic

New America’s Open Technology Institute called on the Federal Communications Commission to use its existing authority and universal service budget to extend connectivity to students without broadband access to help facilitate remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the emergency request filing, OTI urges the FCC to act to empower schools and libraries to close the homework gap using the Universal Service Fund (USF) and E-Rate and Lifeline programs. 

Pandemic Changes Pace of Federal Funding for Broadband Deployment

Like most other aspects of life, the ongoing pandemic has disrupted the federal government’s plans to disburse grants, loans, and subsidies for the construction of rural broadband networks. But unlike the sporting events and concerts that can be put on an indefinite hold, these funds are now needed more than ever by the Internet access providers trying to connect rural households during a time when everything has moved online.

The Teachers Union Ate My Homework

The coronavirus has shut down schools across America, and desperate parents are scrambling to ensure their children’s education doesn’t suffer. The US Department of Education could help with some guidance about how schools can move forward on remote teaching. If the feds don’t take the lead, the teachers unions will—to the detriment of students. Not every student has a laptop and Wi-Fi to study online during the shutdowns. In some districts, this inevitably has an adverse effect on poor students or children who don’t speak English as their first language.

Legislators Push for $2 Billion for Broadband

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Reps. Peter Welch (D-VT) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) have written to their respective leadership asking to set aside $2 billion in the next Covid recovery/stimulus bill for rural broadband connectivity. “In recent weeks, unemployment claims have surged, and schools across the country have closed in an effort to limit the spread of coronavirus, leaving many Americans—including low-income families and students—without critical internet connectivity," they said.

Rural Broadband: Go Big and Stay Home

Cable operators are telling the Federal Communications Commission that if it wants to attract cable operators and other terrestrial broadband providers to its massive subsidy program for rural broadband buildouts, it should retain census blocks as the smallest biddable unit in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) reverse auction. NCTA–The Internet & Television Association has suggested that if the FCC goes big, cable operator bidders may stay home.