benton's blog

It’s Friday, October 4, so we’re not the first to inform you of the federal government shutdown. It is unclear how long the impasse over the Federal budget might go on. During the initial days of the first shutdown in nearly 18 years — when a Republican-controlled Congress battled President Bill Clinton (D) — there was little business getting done in the House or the Senate other than photo opportunities and partisan speeches. So we take a moment today to examine the impact the shutdown is having on telecommunications.

On Monday, September 9, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments in Verizon v. Federal Communications (11-1355). Judges Judith W. Rogers, David S. Tatel, Laurence H. Silberman will now decide the fate of the FCC’s Open Internet rules.

Ah, Labor Day. On that last, great, three day weekend of the summer, we can relax, reflect on the memories of the passing season, and enjoy one more barbeque. So maybe we can be forgiven if we missed the screaming headlines. … Biggest Deal Ever … Future of Telecom in U.S. … $130 Billion. There were screaming headlines, right?

On August 26, our good friends at the Pew Internet and American Life Project released their latest research on home broadband adoption. As the Pew survey will be the most up-to-date, most quoted numbers when policymakers consider broadband-related measures, we take some time here to look at Pew’s findings. (1)

Increasing Internet access around the world was one of the hot stories of the week. Observers wondered, however, if all the smoke really indicates there's a fire to connect everyone to the Internet.

Politico’s Brooks Boliek wrote an article this week that really caught our eye. In “Broadcast TV landscape is shifting under FCC” Boliek notes there’s been a string of broadcast television station deals announced of late. We’ve seen the headlines, too, obviously:

On July 19, 2013, the Federal Communications Commission launched a major effort to review and modernize the E-rate program (more formally known as the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism) which helps schools and libraries to obtain affordable telecommunications services, broadband Internet access and internal network connections.