Reporting

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) officially became the first woman to chair the Senate Commerce Committee, and she pledged to use the gavel to work on improving diversity in STEM fields. "To my fellow colleagues, all of you but particularly the women, I hope that we can do a better job on strategies to help women in the workforce, particularly in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math," she said.

Cox's "Ultimate" Internet plan with 300Mbps download and 30Mbps upload speeds was changed to a 500Mbps download, 10Mbps upload package early in 2020. At first, Cox let customers on the 300Mbps/30Mbps version keep it, without any nudges to change their plans or upgrade their modems. But that changed with the email Cox sent to other customers recently. Cox said customers can keep their 30Mbps upload speeds if they upgrade to a newer modem.

While Lumen, CenturyLink's enterprise business, reaped the financial rewards from the Federal Communications Commission's Connect America Fund (CAF) II, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is taking a back seat to Lumen's fiber builds. Lumen CEO Jeff Storey and CFO Neel Dev said they see better returns from its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) investments than in the FCC's RDOF project for rural broadband. In the RDOF reverse auction results that were announced in December, Lumen was awarded just over $262 million to deploy broadband in 77,257 locations across 20 states.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) said that he plans to reintroduce the Internet Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act. The bill would invest $100 billion to close the digital divide. Rep. Clyburn, who created the Rural Broadband Task Force, said he had lined up support in the House and Senate for his bill, which would be re-introduced in the House in the next couple of weeks.

February 12 is the last day for you to nominate digital equity leaders for the Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion awards! 

A partnership between Quintillion and Arctic Slope Telephone Association Cooperative (ASTAC) is bringing 25/3 Mbps broadband service to Utqiagvik, Alaska, the northernmost point in the US. Since January 2018, ASTAC has installed over 62 miles of fiber networks connecting almost 2,200 locations to fiber, while Quintillion has laid over 1,600 miles of cable off the Alaskan Coast and down the Dalton Highway.

On Feb 11, the House Commerce Committee will mark up portions of the pandemic relief package falling within its jurisdiction.

No one would deny that Internet access has dramatically improved across much of Cuba in the last decade. But everyday Cubans without regular access to reliable Internet still struggle. The 1,095 public Wi-Fi hotspots across Cuba serve as a vital resource to connect the largest island in the Caribbean with the rest of the world. Of the various ways Cubans connect to the Internet, Wi-Fi hotspots continue to be the most popular method. It is worth noting, however, the number of Cubans who must rely on public Wi-Fi hotspots as their primary (or singular) option is dwindling.

More fans of network neutrality rules have asked the Federal Communication Commission to return its bright-line rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization, saying eliminated those rules has negatively impacted connectivity at a time -- during the COVID-19 pandemic -- when connectivity is a key public interest priority.

As more and more stakeholders express concern that some Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winners will not be able to deploy rural broadband meeting the service parameters to which they committed, one stakeholder has an interesting idea for what to do about this. Perhaps an RDOF amnesty program would be appropriate, suggested Jonathan Chambers, a partner with Conexon. It’s not clear why some companies allegedly were allowed to bid gigabit fixed wireless and others weren’t.