May 2019

Bill to Expand Rural Access to Broadband

Reps. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Collin Peterson (D-MN) introduced the Rural Broadband Network Advancement (RBNA) Act, which would invest in expanding broadband access in rural areas. The bill would establish a new program at the Federal Communications Commission that would collect Network User Fees from edge providers (Netflix, AmazonVideo, etc.) based on the data transported over the last mile of networks. User fees would then be invested by the rural broadband providers to help build, maintain and operate robust broadband networks in high-cost rural areas.

The Digital Divide Could Hurt the Count of Latinos in the Census

The 2020 Census is different from past surveys in two important ways.

Head of NOAA says 5G deployment could set weather forecasts back 40 years. The wireless industry denies it.

What if, suddenly, decades of progress in weather prediction was reversed and monster storms that we currently see coming for days were no longer foreseeable? The toll on life, property and the economy would be enormous. Yet the government’s science agencies say such a loss in forecast accuracy could happen if the Federal Communications Commission and the US wireless industry get their way. Both the FCC and the wireless industry are racing to deploy 5G technology, which will deliver information at speeds 100 times faster than today’s mobile networks.

Microsoft, Veterans Affairs Partner on Rural Broadband

The million-plus veterans who live in rural America without broadband at home are the target of a new program. Microsoft and its partners will work with the Department of Veteran Affairs to provide “capital, technology expertise and training resources” to bring broadband access to underserved rural communities with veterans in need. Microsoft has devoted considerable attention to rural broadband and the new program joins at least two other ongoing Microsoft rural broadband programs.

Republicans make alleged conservative bias top priority at election security hearing

Google, Facebook, and Twitter executives came to Capitol Hill to testify about election security. Instead, they faced a grilling about whether their platforms are biased against conservatives. A string of Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee skipped questions about how the companies were tackling disinformation campaigns or preventing Russians from purchasing political ads on their platforms in the run-up to the 2020 election.

Men Appear Twice as Often as Women in News Photos on Facebook (Pew Research Center)

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Report reveals new details about DOJ’s seizing of AP phone records (Columbia Journalism Review)

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In policy switch, pay-TV providers Spectrum and AT&T say if you cancel early, they’re keeping your cash (Los Angeles Times)

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Facebook removes record 2.2 billion fake accounts in first quarter (Hill, The)

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T-Mobile says it will match the special discounts making you reluctant to leave its rivals (USA Today)