Editorial

Animated by hostility toward corporations and a belief that broadband should be a public utility, populists seek to overthrow the current system and replace it with one in which government provides broadband or tightly regulates it. Their campaign strategy is to convince policymakers and the public that US broadband is a failure so they can build support for policies to weaken corporate providers and strengthen non-corporate alternatives, including government-run networks.

Does a progressive activist who wants to weaken copyright and speech protections belong on the Federal Communications Commission? President Biden thinks so, and bizarrely so do the leaders of conservative Newsmax Media and One America News Network (OAN). Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said Newsmax is “being sidelined in favor of a small number of mega-corporations who dominate the channel line-ups.” OAN President Charles Herring hailed Sohn’s commitment to “diversity in media.” The two execs may be hoping Sohn will target Sinclair and Fox News.

In the past few weeks, the Biden Administration has finally moved forward with nominations to the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. As the agencies move forward, fully staffed at last, we hope they will both recognize the role they can play in promoting net neutrality – meaning, in preventing ISPs from taking advantage of their effective gatekeeping roles to favor some services over others. Most people think of net neutrality as the province of the FCC, at least at the federal level.

In the midst of this historic time, I sometimes lose sight of the fact that the official broadband speed definition, at least according to the Federal Communications Commission, remains at 25/3 Mbps. I’m not sure there is anything more absurd in the broadband industry than this outdated definition. Some would argue it was already outdated when it was established back in 2015, as a benchmark to measure national broadband progress.

In the US, we need better internet. We need oversight over Big Tech, ISPs, and other large companies. We need the federal agencies with the powers to advance competition, protect privacy, and empower consumers to be fully staffed and working. New infrastructure legislation aimed at ending the digital divide gives new responsibilities to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and Congress relies on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to reign in Big Tech and others.

President Biden’s effort to supercharge the regulatory state is steadily advancing. The latest example is his nomination of progressive partisan Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communications Commission. She favors deploying the agency’s regulatory power to shackle broadband providers and silence conservative voices. Sohn founded Public Knowledge that has long sought more government control of the internet and media.

President Joe Biden will sign the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law soon. In the broadband infrastructure, adoption, and affordability sections, Congress has included some critical language that lays the foundation for the broadband future we are about to embark upon. Congress lays out a critical set of challenges, principles and goals that every state and local policymaker, every community leader, and every broadband provider should embrace and evangelize.

In June 2021, Consumer Reports (CR) released the results of a nationally representative survey related to broadband use. On the heels of that survey, CR launched its “Let’s Broadband Together” initiative, which uses crowd-sourced methods to gather more data.

With broadband now as important as electricity was in the last century, affordable connectivity is more critical than ever. Through the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program, which provides free or discounted internet service of up to $50 a month ($75 on tribal lands) toward the cost of a consumer’s internet bill for people who qualify, Congress has made it clear that affordable connectivity is a top priority with bipartisan support.

In less than three months, nearly 800,000 low-income people who receive telephone subsidies through the Universal Service Fund's Lifeline program will be negatively impacted by changes scheduled to go into effect at the Federal Communications Commission on December 1, 2021. The FCC needs to change course and help more Americans keep connected to communications services that are essential to navigate the ongoing public health and economic crisis. Most importantly, the FCC should act swiftly and hit the pause button on the 2016 plan to zero-out support for voice-only services.