September 2018

Tribal Broadband: Few Partnerships Exist and the Rural Utilities Service Needs to Identify and Address Any Funding Barriers Tribes Face

In 2018, the Federal Communications Commission estimated that 35 percent of Americans living on tribal lands lack broadband service compared to 8 percent of Americans overall. Various federal programs support increasing broadband deployment in unserved areas, including tribal lands. Tribes can form partnerships with private sector companies and others to deploy broadband infrastructure on tribal lands. The US Government Accountability Office was asked to provide information on these partnerships.

September 24-28, 2018
Weekly Digest

Senate Privacy Hearing: Apologies, Explanations, And Weak Support

 You’re reading the Benton Foundation’s Weekly Round-up, a recap of the biggest (or most overlooked) telecommunications stories of the week. The round-up is delivered via e-mail each Friday.

Round-Up for the Week of September 24-28, 2018

Kavanaugh hearing is a defining moment for social media

The confirmation hearings of Judge Brett Kavanaugh were a poignant, painful and raw moment for the country. They were also a defining moment for social media. People posted their tears, their stories, their outrage wherever they were — in schools and on buses, at work and at home. From 9am to 7pm ET there were 8.8 million hearing-related tweets. That's well more than the 4.5 million tweets about this year's State of the Union address, but still far less than the 75 million vote-related tweets on Election Day 2016.

Three Antitrust Officials Walk Into a Room ...

Department of Justice Antitrust Chief Makan Delrahim, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons and European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager sat down for a meeting in Washington, a moment captured in photo proof posted to Vestager's Twitter feed.

Congress Offers Suggestions on 5G

Twenty-five members of Congress sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on September 25, 2018, offering suggestions on promoting local deployment of advanced communications services, protecting local authority, and 5G.