September 2016

Launched in 2013, the ConnectED initiative set a goal of connecting 99 percent of students to high-speed broadband by the year 2018; called on the private sector and other partners to develop quality, low-cost digital devices and content for teachers and students; and aimed to increase investments in professional development for teachers and school leaders so they can lead the transition to digital learning. Since 2013, 20 million more students have gained access to high-speed broadband in their schools and the ConnectED initiative is on track to connect 99 percent of students to the internet by 2018. After the President’s call, the Federal Communications Commission modernized E-Rate — the federal government’s largest education technology program — to make billions of dollars available to expand access to high-speed internet services. Before E-Rate was modernized, just 30 percent of school districts serving 4 million students offered access to high-speed internet. Today, 77 percent of school districts that serve more than 24 million students do so. Improvements to E-Rate also helped rural and disadvantaged communities build the infrastructure needed to increase their access to broadband.

[Commentary] I am the last person to deny anyone a good snarky gloat. So while I don’t agree entirely with AT&T’s policy blog post taking a jab at reports of Google Fiber stumbling in deployment, I don’t deny they’re entitled to a good snarky blog post. (Google, I point out, denies any disappointment or plans to slow down.) “Broadband investment is not for the feint hearted,” But the irony faeries love to make sport.

The following week National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) had a blog post of their own. Using the publicly available data from the Federal Communications Commission’s Form 477 Report, NDIA showed that in Cleveland’s (OH) poorest neighborhoods (which are also predominantly African American), AT&T does not offer wireline broadband better than 1.5 mbps DSL – about the same speed and quality since they first deployed DSL in the neighborhood. This contrasts with AT&T’s announcement in August that it will now make its gigabit broadband service available in downtown Cleveland and certain other neighborhoods. There are two important, but rather different issues here — one immediate to AT&T, one much more broadly with regard to policy. The more important issue is the return of redlining on a massive scale. Thanks to improvements the FCC has made over the years in the annual mandatory broadband provider reporting form (Form 477), we can now construct maps like this for neighborhoods all over the country, and not just from AT&T. As I argued repeatedly when telecommunication companies, cable companies and Silicon Valley joined forces to enact “franchise reform” deregulation in 2005-07 that eliminated pre-existing anti-redlining requirements – profit maximizing firms are gonna act to maximize profit. They are not going to spend money upgrading facilities if they don’t consider it a good investment.

[Commentary] RIP, America’s robust video market. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has a plan for you and he doesn’t intend to let you refuse it. The week of Sept 5 the FCC released a fact sheet on Chairman Wheeler’s new plan to rid the world’s most vibrant video marketplace of set-top boxes, those devices that almost all cable TV customers choose to lease each month. His plan? Force creation of an app and a standard app license that would take over the video marketplace. What could be more innovative than government-directed software and business contracts?

Apps may be the future of video entertainment, but that does not mean that government should be making this choice. Often, economic regulation pits regulators against customers in determining industry direction. Only one will win: Either the customers will determine the future by deciding which products and services are worth buying, or the regulator will drive the future by coercing the industry into ignoring market signals. Given the unprecedented value customers have enjoyed from US tech and video markets, let’s hope the Wheeler-app doesn’t happen.

[Mark Jamison is the director and Gunter Professor of the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida]