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  2. September 2016

September 2016

Op-ed

Broadband Needs Assessment and Planning for Community Anchor Institutions

The SHLB Coalition developed Connecting Anchor Institutions: A Broadband Action Plan to provide ideas and actionable policy recommendations for government leaders at the federal, state, and local levels to address the broadband needs of anchor institutions. The ten policy papers highlight connectivity gaps and explain why broadband access is vital to communities nationwide. In the coming weeks, the Benton Foundation will be highlighting each of the Action Plan policy papers. The following is an excerpt of the first paper.

State Educational Technology Directors Association
Thursday, September 8, 2016
10:00 - 11:30 am ET

In May 2012, SETDA’s groundbreaking report, The Broadband Imperative: Recommendations to Address K-12 Education Infrastructure Needs pushed educators and policy makers around the country to increase high-speed broadband access in schools—with specific recommendations regarding access, funding, and policies to support teaching and learning. Based on continuing trends in teaching, learning, school administration and the experiences of states and districts, expands on the 2012 recommendations and the April 2016 report, State K-12 Broadband Leadership: Driving Connectivity and Access continuing to advocate for increasing robust access both in and out of school for all students to best prepare for college and careers.

Moderator, Dr. Tracy Weeks, Executive Director, SETDA
Panelists will include:
• Laurence Cocco, Director of the Office of Educational Technology, New Jersey Department of Education
• Jeff Egly, Associate Director, Technical Services, Utah Education Network
• Christine Fox, Deputy Executive Director, SETDA
• Jeff Mao, Senior Manager, Common Sense Education
• Joseph South, Director, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education
Congressional offices and the general public are invited to attend this discussion.

Interested parties may RSVP by registering here, no later than September 5. Questions may be addressed to Christine Fox, Deputy Executive Director, SETDA.


What’s next for Internet.org after yesterday’s SpaceX explosion?

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explosion will be a major setback for Internet.org’s ambitions in sub-saharan Africa. The satellite destroyed this week, called Amos 6, was set to be used in an entirely different project. Amos 6 would have provided backhaul for Internet.org’s Express Wi-Fi system, which connects rural internet providers to the broader internet. Anyone connecting to an Express Wi-Fi provider will experience the same, full internet as anyone else, with no limitations or favored apps. As a result, it’s been able to operate even in countries that rejected Free Basics, including India. Free Basics typically focuses on areas where internet infrastructure is available, but access is too expensive for much of the population. By restricting access, Free Basics can provide more people with access to basic services, even as it runs the risk of creating a multi-tiered internet. Express Wi-Fi tackles a different problem. Instead of focusing on areas that are already connected, Express Wi-Fi looks to build out back-end infrastructure to areas too poor and remote for a conventional telecom to justify the investment. Once the backhaul connectivity is available, local entrepreneurs take on the work of bringing it to the average consumer — but it’s only possible because of the infrastructure provided by Internet.org.

Alaska Plan is a funding win that 'future proofs' networks, Alaska Telephone Association members say

The Alaska Plan approved recently by the Federal Communications Commission is going to work, said the Alaska Telephone Association (ATA), the leading proponent of the funding plan, mainly because it provides “predictable [Universal Service Fund] support payments” that are critical to keeping carriers in business in the United States’ highest-cost telecommunication operating area. Under the new plan, 15 wireline and wireless providers in the state will receive over $1 billion in federal funds over a 10-year period to invest in their telecommunications infrastructure. “Alaska represents the highest-cost local telecom construction and ongoing operating costs in the nation,” said Ed Cushing, president of the ATA. “Providing rural Alaskans with high-quality, affordably-priced broadband service simply is not possible without the predictable USF support payments secured by the FCC's approval of Alaska Plan." Under the plan, which differs quite a bit from other universal service funding in the lower 48 states, both wireline and wireless carriers in the state will receive funding that is fixed at adjusted 2011 rates.

Giving megaphones to the disenfranchised: Why Internet rights are human rights

[Commentary] In modern society, freedom of expression has both individual and social values. On one side, democratic governments are prohibited from censorship, but on the other, freedom of expression requires that they promote speech of marginalized communities to ensure all citizens’ voices are heard. As Yale law professor Owen Fiss puts it, free speech means an uninhibited, robust, and wide-open debate, especially when vested interests attempt to prevent such a debate. In his book, The Irony of Free Speech, which examines both sides of the issue, Fiss goes as far as suggesting that the promotion of free speech may require governments to “hand out megaphones” – or provide all citizens with the resources they need to express themselves. In many ways, the Internet serves as that megaphone.

The United Nations Human Rights Council recently adopted a landmark resolution protecting online freedom of expression as a human right. The resolution condemns measures that intentionally prevent or disrupt access to information online as a human rights violation and calls on governments to refrain from these measures. The resolution was prompted when the governments of Uganda and Ghana separately shut down the Internet during election days, thereby purposely withholding important information from citizens and preventing inclusive freedom of expression online. Access to the Internet is key for the realization of human rights and freedom of expression in modern societies. Even more, as online services proliferate, Internet access becomes a prerequisite for enjoying cultural, social, and economic rights. With this UN resolution, governments are not only forbidden to shut down the Internet or block information, but also required to develop and implement public policies that assure greater access to the Internet, whether in the Amazonian forest, rural Oaxaca, or urban Kibera. Access to the Internet provides all citizens the right to express themselves and contribute to their societies.

Justice Department Requires Divestitures in Order for Nexstar to Proceed with Media General Acquisition

The Department of Justice announced that it will require Nexstar Broadcasting Group to divest seven broadcast television stations in order to proceed with its $4.6 billion acquisition of Media General Corporation. The department said that without the required divestitures, the prices for broadcast television spot advertising and the fees charged to multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) – such as cable and satellite providers – for the retransmission of broadcast television programming to MVPD subscribers would likely increase in six designated market areas (DMAs) located across the United States.

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit Sept 2 in the US District Court of the District of Columbia to block the proposed transaction and simultaneously filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the competitive harm alleged in the lawsuit. The department’s complaint alleges that the proposed transaction would lessen competition in the sale of broadcast television spot advertising and the licensing of broadcast television programming to MVPDs for retransmission to MVPD subscribers in the following DMAs: Roanoke-Lynchburg (VA), Terre Haute (IN), Fort Wayne (IN), Green Bay-Appleton (WI), Lafayette (LA), and Davenport (IA)/Rock Island-Moline (IL)(“Quad Cities”). As a result of the acquisition, Nexstar would control between 41 and 100 percent of the broadcast television station gross advertising revenues in these six DMAs and at least two broadcast television stations affiliated with the four major national television networks.

Appeals Court Dismisses Time Warner Cable Set-Top Law

The Federal Communications Commission is trying to spur separate competition to cable-leased set-tops in the delivery of video programming, but according to one federal court, the two are inseparable. A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has upheld a lower court decision dismissing a class action suit against Time Warner Cable for allegedly tying premium cable services to leasing cable boxes, finding that for the purposes of antitrust law, at least, cable boxes and the premium cable service they transmit are not separate products so can't be anticompetitively tied. "A cable box must be cable-provider-specific, like the keys to a padlock," the court found. "Although the plaintiffs frame their claim as a tie-in, the core issue is a cable provider's right to refuse to enable cable boxes it does not control to unscramble its coded signal." The decision was handed down Sept 2.

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