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March 2017

Benton Welcomes Lifeline Proceeding, Urges Implementation of Program to Ensure Affordable Broadband

Submitted by benton on Thu, 03/02/2017 - 18:33

On March 2, the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau sought comments on a request for consideration filed by the Benton Foundation and many other public interest groups of the decision to deny nine companies from participating in the FCC’s Lifeline program which makes telecommunications services – including broadband – more affordable for people with low incomes.

America’s Digital Lifeline Is On Life Support

As the CEO of Connecting for Good, a nonprofit in Kansas City, Esselman helps several thousand households at low-income housing projects in the city get free access to the internet. His group has provided such services since 2012, in addition to conducting computer training sessions for poor and working-class Kansas City residents. Now it wants to expand its reach, having recently applied for a federal program called Lifeline, which provides a monthly subsidy of $9.25 to low-income Americans to allow them to get online. But the Trump administration just made it harder for the new program, which launched in December, to have an impact.

Ajit Pai, the newly appointed chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has announced a review of the program and blocked most of the already-vetted companies from participating in Lifeline, which could make it difficult for tens of thousands of low-income Americans to get online. The move shocked broadband access proponents in both parties, who have long argued that helping low-income and rural Americans get internet access is essential to educating young people and training the workforce of the future.

Here’s How Trump’s FCC Privacy Rollback Puts Your Internet Data at Risk

President Donald Trump's newly-installed Federal Communications Commission chief moved to halt a key policy protecting online privacy and data security on March 1, in what public interest advocates called the latest Trump-era attack on FCC consumer safeguards. The data security rule was approved in 2016 by the Obama-era FCC as part of a suite of privacy safeguards designed to give consumers more power over how Internet service providers use their personal information.

The full privacy package, which is now on the Trump FCC's chopping block, requires ISPs to obtain "opt-in" consent from consumers before they use or sell sensitive personal information, including browsing activity, mobile app data, and emails and online chats. Consumer advocates say the FCC's data security rule, along with the broader privacy policy, is necessary at a time of increasing cyberattacks against internet users. The FCC's action drew a strong rebuke from the agency's lone Democratic commissioner and other public interest advocates.

How the nation’s largest owner of TV stations helped Donald Trump’s campaign

Over four days in early August, Donald Trump gave interviews to four TV stations in Ohio, Florida and Maine, and to the Washington bureau of a national TV chain. The interviews were a coup for the stations, which eagerly promoted their “one-on-one” encounters with the GOP nominee. They were also an effective way for Trump to target voting blocs in key states, particularly since he had begun limiting his national media exposure largely to friendly interviewers on Fox News. The most striking thing about the interviews, however, may be that one company was behind all of them: Sinclair Broadcast Group.

The Maryland-based company is the nation’s largest owner of TV stations, with 173 in 81 cities nationwide, including those that interviewed Trump in August. The Washington bureau was Sinclair’s, too; it provided its interview with Trump to Sinclair’s many stations for their newscasts. Sinclair, which has drawn criticism for favoring conservative candidates before, says it had no special arrangement with Trump’s campaign and that it didn’t favor him at the expense of his main rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. It also said it offered equal time to Clinton and solicited interviews with her throughout the campaign, but her managers responded less enthusiastically than Trump.

House Science Committee approves cybersecurity framework bill

The House Science Committee approved a bill designed to encourage federal agencies to adopt cybersecurity framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The committee approved the bill largely along party lines, despite opposition from Democratic Reps to provisions in the bill requiring NIST to evaluate and audit federal agencies’ adoption of the cybersecurity and technology guidelines.

Rep Ralph Abraham (R-LA) introduced the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, Assessment, and Auditing Act of 2017 recently, couching it as a response to recent high-profile cyber breaches like those at the Office of Personnel Management and IRS. The legislation would direct NIST to develop metrics for evaluating federal agencies’ cybersecurity and submit an initial assessment and regular audits to Congress on cybersecurity measures put in place by federal agencies. It would also set up guidance for federal agencies to incorporate the NIST cyber framework and establish working groups in the federal and private sectors to help public and private entities use the framework.

FCC's March 8 Hearing in House Postponed

The House Communications Subcommittee is postponing its planned March 8 Federal Communications Commission reauthorization hearing at which all the commissioners had been expected to testify. The hearing was scheduled to deal with budget issues, spectrum auctions and FCC process, among other things.

Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has said her priorities are reauthorization of both the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and the FCC. Her first oversight hearing was on NTIA. “I’m looking forward to having new FCC Chairman Pai and Commissioners O’Reilly and Clyburn testify before the subcommittee,” said Blackburn in announcing the hearing in Feb. “It will provide our members the opportunity to learn more about the final stages of the broadcast incentive auction, Chairman Pai’s agenda, and FCC reauthorization.” That hearing was to have been one of two hearings with the FCC commissioners, the other being a Senate Commerce Committee oversight hearing, which is still scheduled for 10 a.m. on March 8.

$212 Million in NY Broadband Funding Awarded to 26 Carriers Including FairPoint, Frontier, and TDS

The state of New York awarded nearly $212 million in funding to bring broadband to parts of the state where service is not available today or is only available at low speeds. The broadband funding awarded went to 26 companies, including cable companies, municipal networks, and cooperatives, as well as to traditional telecom companies including FairPoint Communications, Frontier Communications, and TDS Telecom.

Awards were made in phase two of the New NY Broadband Program. Funding recipients also must contribute some funding of their own, yielding total anticipated investment of more than $268 million. New NY Broadband is an ambitious program announced in 2015 that allocated $500 million to make broadband available throughout the state. Except in the most rural areas, operators are required to deploy service supporting speeds of at least 100 Mbps downstream. For the most rural areas, the minimum speed target is 25 Mbps downstream.

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