Tuesday, April 9, 2024
Headlines Daily Digest
Today's Full Agenda includes From Fear to Confidence: Women’s Journeys Toward Digital Equity
Don't Miss:
Digital Skills Foster Confidence in Life
Commerce Committee Chairs Cantwell, McMorris Rodgers Unveil Historic Data Privacy Legislation
Broadband ‘nutrition’ labels are coming—here’s what you need to know
Digital Equity
News From the FCC
Consumer Protections
Data & Mapping
Infrastructure
State/Local
Speed
Wireless
Privacy
Advertising
Personal Safety
Platforms/Social Media/AI
Energy
Kids & Media
Lobbying
In a field focused on maps and megabytes, speed and latency, those of us working to realize universal, equitable broadband can sometimes lose sight of what connectivity can mean for people’s day-to-day lives. Today, we are launching some phenomenal research by EveryoneOn CEO Norma E. Fernandez that not only expertly applies the tools of in-depth, careful, and closely observed, qualitative research, but does so to focus on often overlooked groups—low-income African American/Black and Latina women. Her new report, From Fear To Confidence: The Digital Skills Journey of Underserved Women, focuses on women’s lived experiences and offers valuable insights into how digital inclusion programs can be designed to fit into complicated lives and meet diverse needs. Fernandez set out to understand what motivated women to embark on their digital skills journeys, and when they did, what circumstances they encountered that either created a speed bump or smoothed their path. Through interviews and surveys, Fernandez's research discovered common threads, ones that transcend race, ethnicity, and geography.
With the future of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) looking grimmer every day, wireless operators and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are preparing for its demise and weighing their alternatives. The ACP is expected to run out of money by mid-May, leaving millions of Americans without discounted internet services. The demise of the ACP will be particularly harmful to a number of smaller MVNOs that have based their business on connecting customers to the ACP. The National Lifeline Organization (NaLA) is a non-profit industry trade group that represents many of these ACP and Lifeline-focused MVNOs and distributors. According to John Heitmann, counsel for NaLA, the association’s members are very concerned about the future of ACP and are trying to figure out how to keep their customers connected if ACP funding ends. Heitmann added that some NaLA members are planning to keep their customers connected for the entire month of May even though the ACP program will only provide partial funding in May.
The Federal Communications Commission will launch a formal proceeding to examine how it can best help stop abusers from using connectivity tools in vehicles to harass and intimidate their partners. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will examine how the agency can use existing law to ensure car manufacturers and wireless service providers are taking steps to assist abuse victims and seek comment on additional steps the Commission can take to safeguard domestic violence survivors. It follows multiple media reports of smart car services being used to stalk and harm survivors of violence and abuse.
Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared with her colleagues proposed rules to enable wireless communications for uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) use in the 5 GHz band. This initial action will, if adopted by a vote of the full FCC, establish service rules that allow operators to obtain direct frequency assignments in a portion of the 5030-5091 MHz band for non-networked operations. The Report and Order circulated on April 5, 2024, would rely on dynamic frequency management systems (DFMSs) to manage and coordinate access to the spectrum and enable its safe and efficient use. To enable operations in the band during the interim period before the DFMS is in operation, the rules would, on an interim basis, require operators seeking to transmit in the band to first submit a request to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for deconfliction and approval, and, upon FAA authorization, complete an online registration form with the FCC.
Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel held a roundtable discussion about the vote on net neutrality with community leaders and agencies at the Santa Clara County Fire Department in Campbell, California. She chose the site to focus on how restoring net neutrality would benefit public safety, pointing to how that very fire department had had its internet access throttled—or cut off—automatically when it hit its internet use cap during the 2018 Mendocino Fire. Chairwoman Rosenworcel heard from the department’s assistant fire chief, Brian Glass, who said fire agencies suddenly couldn’t coordinate resources out in the field. “The firefighters banded together using personal devices from different carriers that maybe weren’t being throttled or hadn’t reached the cap in order to get the job done,” Glass said.
Soon, getting info on a broadband provider will be as easy as checking the label on the back of a cereal box. Or so we hope! The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is requiring the majority of internet service providers (ISPs) to display broadband consumer labels at the point of sale by April 10. Those labels must disclose information (in an easy-to-read manner) about a provider’s monthly pricing, upload and download speeds, data allowances as well as links to the ISP’s network management practices and privacy policies. Bryan Darr, VP of government affairs at Ookla, said he thinks there are “a number” of regulatory risks for the ISPs, including the “administrative headache” it’s going to be to implement these labels, regardless of an operator’s size. As for how the broadband labels will impact consumers, Darr explained they’ll most likely benefit people who are unsatisfied with their internet service, whether that’s due to reliability, or consistency or cost, and want to shop around for a different ISP.
Are We Up to the Challenge? An analysis of the FCC Broadband Data Collection Fixed Internet Availability Challenges
In 2021, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program allocated $42.45 billion to enhance high-speed internet access across the United States. As part of this funding initiative, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) developed a national coverage map to guide the allocation of BEAD funds. This map was the key determinant to direct BEAD investments to areas in need of broadband infrastructure improvements. The FCC encouraged public participation in refining this coverage map through the submission of "challenges" to either locations on the map or the status of broadband at any location on the map. These challenges allowed citizens and organizations to report discrepancies between the map's data and actual broadband availability, ensuring a more equitable distribution of funds. In this paper, we present a study analyzing the nature and distribution of these challenges across different access technologies and geographic areas. Among several other insights, we observe, for example, that the majority of challenges (about 58%) were submitted against terrestrial fixed wireless technologies as well as that the state of Nebraska had the strongest engagement in the challenge process with more than 75% of its broadband-serviceable locations having submitted at least one challenge.
The Maine Connectivity Authority awarded two grants to connect hard-to-reach locations in Fayette and Wilton with access to affordable, quality, high-speed internet. The Town of Fayette, in cooperation with Consolidated Communications, will receive a Connect the Ready grant of $1,875,000 to reach approximately 440 homes and businesses. The town of Wilton, also in collaboration with Consolidated Communications, will receive a Reach Me grant of $311,000 to connect approximately 169 hard-to-reach locations requiring underground infrastructure. These two grants reallocate dollars initially awarded to internet service provider Matrix Design Group, which was awarded grants to serve the two towns in early 2023. Matrix ultimately declined the awards in December 2023 when it declared it could not fulfill the grant requirements. Following that declination, a Request for Proposals was issued for the town of Fayette, which resulted in four competitive proposals. Similarly, the town of Wilton followed a community-driven process, identifying their provider of choice based on competitive service options.
The recent decision of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to increase the definition of broadband from 25/3 Mbps to 100/20 Mbps got me thinking about the long term trajectory of the demand for broadband speed. One way to think about future demand is to look back at the broadband speeds 25 years ago. In 1999, both telcos and cable companies offered 1 Mbps DSL broadband connection as an upgrade to dial-up—and 1 Mbps became the de facto definition of broadband at the time. Twenty five years later, the definition of broadband was increased to 100 Mbps, a 100-fold increase. There are a lot of reasons to think that the demand for faster speeds will keep growing. Every year we find more uses for fast broadband. If we plot the demand for broadband speeds out for 25 more years, at the historical rate of growth, demand would be 100 times higher in 25 years than it is today. That would mean the right definition of broadband in 25 years would be 10 gigabits. I know that a lot of people will jump all over this prediction and say it’s ludicrous and unrealistic—but think about 1999. You would have been hard pressed to find anybody in 1999 who would have predicted that the definition of download speed in 2022 would be 100 Mbps.
Commerce Committee Chairs Cantwell, McMorris Rodgers Unveil Historic Draft Comprehensive Data Privacy Legislation
Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris (R-WA) unveiled the American Privacy Rights Act. This comprehensive draft legislation sets clear, national data privacy rights and protections for Americans, eliminates the existing patchwork of state comprehensive data privacy laws and establishes robust enforcement mechanisms to hold violators accountable, including a private right of action for individuals. The American Privacy Rights Act:
- Establishes Foundational Uniform National Data Privacy Rights for Americans
- Gives Americans the Ability to Enforce Their Data Privacy Rights
- Protects Americans’ Civil Rights
- Holds Companies Accountable and Establishes Strong Data Security Obligations
- Focuses on the Business of Data, Not Mainstreet Business
The Maryland legislature passed two sweeping privacy bills that aim to restrict how powerful tech platforms can harvest and use the personal data of consumers and young people—despite strong objections from industry trade groups representing giants like Amazon, Google and Meta. One bill, the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, would impose wide-ranging restrictions on how companies may collect and use the personal data of consumers in the state. The other, the Maryland Kids Code, would prohibit certain social media, video game and other online platforms from tracking people under 18 and from using manipulative techniques — like auto-playing videos or bombarding children with notifications — to keep young people glued online.
Charter Communications said that although it “disagrees with NAD’s conclusion,” it will comply with modifications to an advertisement for its Spectrum Business Wireless Internet Backup service suggested by BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division (NAD). The challenge to the ad was brought by AT&T Services. NAD found that disclosures were not prominent enough and confusing. NAD “noted that even a more prominent disclosure of the specific limitations of the backup service may be ineffective in a context that claims, ‘complete connectivity and reliability’ and emphasizes ‘you never miss a beat.'” NAD suggested that Charter modify three claims about the backup service:
- Provides “complete connectivity and reliability,”
- Maintains the same level of connectivity and reliability during a power outage as during normal operating wired conditions, and
- Is “made to keep you online even when the power’s off, with the complete connectivity and reliability you get from wireless internet backup.”
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org), Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org), and Zoe Walker (zwalker AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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