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December 2015

FCC Releases Universal Service Monitoring Report

The Federal Communications Commission released its Universal Service Monitoring Report on December 22, 2015, which includes data received through September 2015. The report was prepared by federal and state staff members for the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, and contains information designed to monitor the impact of various universal service support mechanisms and the method used to finance them.

The report incorporates data from several sources, including NECA and USAC, and includes an update on industry revenues, universal service program funding requirements, and contribution factors, among other things. Subscribers relying on Lifeline, the FCC's low-income phone subsidy, declined for the second straight year in 2014. The report says that 13.4 million people participated in the program in 2014, down from 14.5 million in 2013 and 17.1 million in 2012. The drop from 2012 to 2014 is by far the largest two-year decline in the program's 18-year history.

FCC Releases 18th Mobile Wireless Competition Report

The Federal Communications Commission released its Eighteenth Report on wireless competition on December 23, 2015, containing data and analysis covering the remainder of 2014 and the first half of 2015. The report provides, among other things, an analysis of the overall competitive dynamics of the industry, describing the various operating entities and their relative positions using indices such as market share, subscribership, as well as various financial indicators, and highlights the Commission’s policies and actions designed to enhance competition. Commissioners Pai and O’Rielly issued separate statements.

State Members of Joint Conference Provide Lifeline Survey Information

Gregg Sayre, on behalf of the state members of the Federal State Joint Conference on Advanced Services, filed a letter on December 22, 2015, providing information from a survey on state Lifeline programs conducted by state members of the Joint Conference. They said the survey results indicated at least 21 states have some sort of verification program to confirm consumer eligibility for participation in the Lifeline program. The state members also asserted that the Federal Communications Commission’s announcement that it is creating databases was likely an incentive for some states to defer action on plans to deploy state-specific databases.

For Internet Users 2015 Was a Year of Many Wins … and One Loss

[Commentary] While not every fight ended in a win for Internet users, 2015 was a year when millions of advocates defied the conventional wisdom that tech policymaking was an arcane and secretive world limited to a small circle of insiders.Here are the many highlights… and a few less-than-spectacular moments:

  1. Network Neutrality: We, the Internet, Won: After more than 10 years of popular organizing, the Federal Communications Commission approved real Net Neutrality protections with a ruling that prevents Internet access providers like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon from becoming the gatekeepers to everything online.
  2. Comcast Merger Crash and Burn: In April, Comcast abandoned its proposed mega-merger with Time Warner Cable.
  3. Protecting Homegrown Networks: Also in February, the FCC ruled to preempt state laws that prevent municipalities from creating high-speed Internet networks to connect their residents.
  4. Philly (PA) (and Seattle (WA)) vs. Comcast: New Hope for Cities: In early December, the City of Philadelphia hammered together a cable franchise agreement with Comcast that provided low-cost internet service to thousands more Philadelphians.
  5. The FCC Takes Choice and Affordability Seriously: At the close of 2014, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler recognized that competitive choices for fast, wired-line connections are lacking in America. In May, Chairman Wheeler invited comments on ways to make Lifeline  --  a program set up originally to subsidize the cost of telephone services  --  available for broadband Internet connections as well.
  6. The Facebook Menace: Any roundup of Internet advocacy in 2015 would be incomplete without recognizing the spreading gatekeeper powers of social networks  --  and the growing public advocacy to support the rights of users of platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
  7. The Surveillance State Strikes Back The battle to rein in online surveillance raged back and forth in 2015 with important advances for privacy advocates offset by a disappointing year-ending defeat.
  8. A Political Force in 2016: As 2016 presidential hopefuls took to the trail in 2015, Internet issues found a spot at the podium.

[Tim Karr is senior director of strategy at Free Press]

How Facebook and Google’s Plans to Boost Internet Access Advanced in 2015

Some 3.2 billion people in the world are now online, the United Nations estimated late in November. That leaves 56.6 percent of the human race unconnected. And in the past year growth in the number of people who are connected slowed -- the United Nation pegs it at 6.9 percent for 2015, down from 7.4 percent in 2014. Other things happened in 2015 that might reverse that trend, though. Facebook and Alphabet, the holding company formerly known as Google, stepped up their competing campaigns to dramatically cut the cost of Internet access.

The heart of Alphabet’s assault on the UN’s Internet access figures is Project Loon, part of its X Labs division. The project has developed stratospheric helium balloons that can be steered in fleets around the globe and provide high-speed LTE connectivity to mobile devices below. Facebook has designs on the stratosphere, too. In July the company unveiled a solar-powered drone with a 42-meter wingspan, designed to use laser and radio links to beam Internet connectivity to special ground-based receivers.

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