When I first took office, President Donald Trump directed me to lead the Rural Prosperity Task Force, a team of federal, state and local leaders focused on improving the lives of those who live in rural America. The task force’s top takeaway was how critical access to broadband is in rural communities. I always say, investing in the expansion of rural broadband is as vital as the rural electric and telephone networks were decades ago.
This Public Notice announces that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has appointed members to serve on the 2019 Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment (ACDDE). Additionally, Chairman Pai has appointed chairs for the three working groups for the ACDDE. Together with Anna M.
The landscape and geography of access to high-speed internet continues to change rapidly due to economic and regulatory changes, private investments into new technology and policy proposals leading up to the 2020 presidential election. From Q2 to Q3 2019 we saw a shift towards higher speeds, but also higher prices. With respect to pricing, since our Q2 report there have been more than 700 pricing or plan updates by internet service providers. With respect to speed, this report shows that nearly every state experienced an increase in access to 500 mbps internet.
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers dropped a bill directing the Federal Communications Commission to hold a public auction of coveted midband airwaves. The Clearing Broad Airwaves for New Deployment (C-BAND) Act is led by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA), Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA), Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH), and Rep Greg Gianforte (R-MT).
The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chaired by Sen Rob Portman (R-OH) held a hearing the same day it released a bipartisan report that shows regular misuse of the systems that 14 federal agencies use to collect comments from the public on proposed rules. Agency officials told lawmakers they are exploring modern technologies like CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA (which prompt humans to prove that they are humans) and developing new approaches to reform Americans’ ability to leave digital feedback—and trust that their comments are seen and voices are heard—using federal comment platforms.
After the Federal Communications Commission received nearly 24 million comments in the course of just one rulemaking proceeding in 2017 and its website crashed due to the volume of comments submitted simultaneously, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations initiated a review of federal commenting systems to understand their flaws and develop recommendations to improve them. The Subcommittee found:
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