May 2015

[Commentary] Cost. Literacy. Relevance. Time and again research identifies these three barriers to broadband adoption. On May 28, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed to modernize the FCC’s Lifeline program to address the first great barrier: cost. Nearly 30 percent of Americans still haven’t adopted broadband at home, and low-income consumers disproportionately lack access. While more than 95 percent of households with incomes over $150,000 have broadband, only 48 percent of those making less than $25,000 have service at home. Nearly 50 percent of low-income Americans have had to cancel or suspend smartphone service due to financial hardship. Because low-income consumers disproportionately use smart phones for Internet access, this puts them at a disadvantage at a time when broadband access is essential for access to education and information, for managing and receiving health care, for daily tasks like accessing government services, checking bank balances, finding bargains on goods and services, and more.

The coming fight over Lifeline raises inevitable questions over who should help pay for the low-income discounts. The program is funded by fees from telephone companies and consumers. But with the FCC poised to add broadband to the program, it's possible that the agency could ask Internet providers to chip in, too. For the moment, the FCC has explicitly decided not to do so. The agency is waiting for a formal recommendation on the matter from a bipartisan group of state and federal officials known as the Federal State Joint Board on Universal Service. But on the heels of the FCC's network neutrality rules -- which technically open the door to fees for Lifeline and other programs -- industry advocates fear Internet providers would be required to pay up.

The next meeting of the Federal Communications Commission's Disability Advisory Committee will take place on Tuesday, June 23, 2015, from 9:00am to 3:00pm EST, at the FCC's headquarters. At the meeting, an announcement will be made of the appointment of Claude Stout of Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. and Susan Mazrui of AT&T Services, Inc. as the new Committee Co-chairs, replacing Andrew Phillips of the National Association of the Deaf. It is also expected that the Committee will receive reports from all four subcommittees as follows:

• DAC will consider a recommendation from its Relay/Equipment Distribution Subcommittee regarding modification of the speed of answer requirements for video relay service.
• DAC will consider a recommendation from its Communications Subcommittee regarding ways to identify gaps in available research about the communications product and service preferences, barriers, and information needs of people with disabilities.
• DAC will consider a recommendation from the emergency Communications Subcommittee to endorse the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council IV Working Group 2's report and recommendations for improvements to Wireless Emergency Alerts
• DAC will receive a presentation summarizing the Video Description Rountable hosted by the Video Programming Subcommittee on June 22, 2015.

[Commentary] Instead of looking at broadcasting as a antiquated service that should be stripped for spectrum, the Federal Communications Commission needs to start seeing it for what it is -- an elegantly simple and inexpensive means of keeping every citizen in the national conversation. Instead of imposing burdensome new rules or tightening up restrictive old rules, the FCC should look for ways to lighten the regulatory load and strengthen the medium.