Press Release

Sens Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), co-chairs of the Senate Broadband Caucus, reintroduced the Measuring the Economic Impact of Broadband Act. While the federal government measures the economic impact of many industries, it does not produce current, reliable statistics on the economic impact of broadband on the US economy.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced the “Broadband Interagency Coordination Act of 2019.” The legislation would direct the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to enter into a memorandum of understanding to coordinate the distribution of federal funds for broadband deployment. Such an agreement would reduce overbuilding and ensure funds are targeted to unserved and underserved areas.

The Federal Communications Commission has revised the 2019 Broadband Deployment Report to reflect a thorough review of the initial draft triggered by the discovery that a company submitted drastically overstated deployment data to the FCC.

To safeguard the privacy and safety of American consumers, Commissioner Rosenworcel sent letters to major phone companies to confirm whether they have lived up to their commitments to end location aggregation services. The FCC needs to do more to protect the privacy and security of American consumers. It needs to do more to provide the public with basic information about what is happening with their realtime location information.

We are a coalition of 103 civil liberties, civil rights, corporate responsibility, faith-based, human rights, immigrant rights, journalism, media, privacy, and government transparency organizations, legal service providers, and trade associations. We write to express our deep concern with reports of surveillance and targeting of activists, journalists, and lawyers by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai urging the FCC to deny a petition by the ITTA-Voice of America’s Broadband Providers that would permit carriers to display Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Fund contributions on customer bills. TRS ensures persons with hearing or speech disabilities are able to use necessary telephone services at no additional cost to an individual consumer.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance is launching a new, dedicated website for the Digital Equity Act of 2019. The new site features:

A recent Morning Consult survey reports that over half of Americans today (55 percent) say they are interested in subscribing to gigabit speed internet service. The same survey asked consumers about the attributes they see important for future internet services, and perhaps not surprisingly, speed and security rose to the top. Eight-six percent of those surveyed said “unparalleled speed” was critical while 89 percent said that greater encryption, privacy and protection is necessary in broadband internet to keep their information and online activity safe online. 

New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced an investigation into Facebook’s unauthorized collection of 1.5 million Facebook users’ email contact databases. While Facebook claims that 1.5 million contact databases were directly harvested by its email password verification process for new users, the total number of people whose information was improperly obtained may be hundreds of millions. Email verification is a standard practice for online services such as Facebook.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced Aaron Goldberger will serve as acting wireless and international advisor. Goldberger replaces Rachael Bender, who is transitioning to the International Bureau.