benton's blog

By the end of this month, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to issue new rules aimed at reforming and modernizing the low-income Lifeline telephone program. The rules are expected to include many changes to the application process. It will also update the annual check-in which determines continued eligibility for the program.

Whether the FCC succeeds in this effort will depend on whether the reform order includes an extensive education and outreach component to explain the changes. Planning must start now.

The Federal Communications Commission is poised to reform and modernize the Lifeline phone program that was created to help low-income household afford phone service. The reform and modernization is expected to move the program beyond traditional landline service to better accommodate wireless phone service and to set a foundation to move to broadband access for poor people. Yet, the reform could also discriminate against the very people the program was designed to help.

By Cecilia Garcia

Benton and our friends at the Alliance for Communications Democracy (ACD) wanted to get a feel for the state of public, educational and government (PEG) access across the nation. We wanted to see if PEG channels are realizing the promise and optimism expressed back in 1984 by the House Commerce Committee in a report that set forth the reason why these channels are so important.

By Danilo Yanich, PhD
University of Delaware

Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps was the only FCC commissioner to dissent from the order allowing Comcast and General Electric to enter into a complicated joint venture that will give Comcast control of NBC Universal. Here is his statement.

"Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work."
-- Peter Drucker

Big Ideas With the Potential to Substantially Change the Community

The September 2nd Federal Communications Commission National Broadband Plan workshop featured a panel of academics, policy directors and telecom executives that came together to discuss the role of metrics and benchmarks for evaluating the various dimensions of broadband across geographic areas and across time. The Benchmarks considered included variables such as broadband deployment and adoption, affordability and prices, quality of broadband services and levels of competition.

On August 26, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission held a National Broadband Plan workshop focused on the potential impact of increased broadband access on job training and job placement. Topics of discussion included: Online and remote job training, Access to jobs, Adult education, The future of job searches, and Digital literacy for adults.

On August 25, the Federal Communications Commission held a National Broadband Plan workshop focused on broadband and communications infrastructure potentially transformative role in meeting our national energy, environmental, and transportation goals, including energy independence, greenhouse gas emissions reductions and clean energy generation. Nick Sinai, the Energy and Environment Director for the FCC's National Broadband Taskforce, led the discussion. The first panel explored smart grid technology. A second panel addressed broadband and climate change.