March 2017

Responding to a letter from 13 U.S. Senators today, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai promised to alert the public of any attempt by the Trump Administration to influence FCC decision-making or direct the independent agency to take or not take any action with respect to media interests. The following may be attributed to Benton Foundation Executive Director Adrianne B. Furniss:

“I am glad to read Chairman Pai’s recognition that free media is vital to our democracy. While the Trump Administration continues to treat the press as the ‘opposition,’ Chairman Pai says he will respect the First Amendment. I hope that additional federal officeholders and Members of Congress also live up to their oath to defend and protect the Constitution.”

A West Virginia Broadband Bill introduced in the state house of representatives aims to spur broadband competition and deployment by allowing local communities to form cooperatives to build broadband networks. House Bill 3093 also would re-establish a state broadband enhancement council charged with collecting data about internet speeds, seeking and dispensing non-state funding and grants, and making recommendations to the legislature. Additionally, the bill includes rules about the use of conduit, microtrenching and pole access, and would prevent broadband providers from making false claims about the speeds their broadband service is capable of delivering.

Importantly, the bill is designed to require no state funding. Nevertheless,a local media outlet expects the bill to face opposition in the state senate, considering that the senate president also works as sales director for Frontier Communications, which already has expressed concerns about whether the bill would achieve its intended goals.

In January, a tech consultant from the broadband dead zone donned his pamphleteer's cap. In nine fiercely argued pages, Stephen E. Harris went hard after a multi-million dollar question: Why was the Massachusetts Broadband Institute holding back money for design and engineering services — originally $18 million for all unserved towns, or 45 percent of MBI's bond funding — from towns that want to build their own networks?

A kind of Tom Paine for the 21st century, Harris put his argument into his study's title. "Last Mile towns must control all of their broadband funds," he called it. He shipped copies to area lawmakers and to many of the town broadband committees trying to close the digital divide. Weeks later, when MBI officials convened a community forum in Worthington (MA) in Feb, they heard a common refrain. Towns desperate for last-mile broadband connections, speaker after speaker said, ought to get all available money from the state, including the "professional services" allocation. Harris stood nodding in the back of Worthington's Town Hall. "I was taken aback that all the towns were asking for the professional services money," Harris said later. His report wasn't even a month old.