Research

As part of the Federal Communications Commission’s ongoing effort to reform universal service funding of mobile wireless services and focus subsidies on unserved areas rather than on areas that already have service, the FCC unanimously adopted a new data collection of 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband coverage maps and a challenge process to determine areas eligible for support in the Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) auction. The largest mobile providers supported both this data collection and the challenge process.

In one year mobile Video Experience has significantly improved in 59% of 100 countries analyzed. Top-ranked countries for mobile download speed were far from top in Video Experience. South Korean users’ experience ranked first for download speed yet 21st for video, while Canadians’ were third fastest for download speed in Opensignal’s State of Mobile report, but just 22nd for video.

America’s newsrooms are changing in important ways. Mergers, closures and layoffs have affected a variety of media organizations – especially newspapers – and these trends are reshaping the nation’s media landscape:

The DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act (S 2749) would codify the process through which federal and nonfederal entities request internet domain names specifically for governmental users (i.e. domain names ending in .gov). The bill would transfer the responsibility for overseeing the current process from the General Services Administration (GSA) to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The bill also would permit state and local entities to apply for homeland security grants to help fund the costs of transitioning to those governmental domain names.

As ownership of mobile phones, especially smartphones, spreads rapidly across the globe, there are still notable numbers of people in emerging economies who do not own a mobile phone, or who share one with others. A Pew Research Center survey in 11 emerging economies finds that a median of 6% of adults do not use phones at all, and a median of 7% do not own phones but instead borrow them from others. The mobile divides are most pronounced in Venezuela (32%), India (30%) and the Philippines (27%), countries where about three-in-ten adults do not own a mobile phone.

GAO was asked to review funding reforms and fraud controls the Federal Communications Commission has implemented for rate-of-return carriers. This report examines the extent to which FCC: (1) has implemented funding reforms specific to rate-ofreturn carriers, and (2) is managing fraud risks for the high-cost program in accordance with leading practices. One of the reforms that GAO reviewed established a funding mechanism for the carriers whereby FCC determines the level of financial support to provide the carriers based on cost and revenue estimates produced by a model.

The keen interest by politicians, regulators, and competition authorities in international price rankings has sparked a series of management consultancies to produce regularly studies that purport to compare and rank prices for mobile wireless services across the world. These rankings, so they claim, are the Swiss Army knife of competition analysis. A country that ranks lower on a list is declared a laggard or noncompetitive and thus supposedly is in need of regulatory intervention. Such claims require scrutiny and further analysis.

The National Commission on Online Platforms and Homeland Security Act (HR 4782) would require the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to research how online platforms may be used to facilitate acts of terrorism. On the basis of information from DHS regarding the costs of similar research efforts, CBO estimates implementing that provision would cost $4 million. The bill also would establish a national commission to study how entities have used social media and other online platforms to threaten US national security.

IPTV is an important tool to change business structures and move beyond subscription-based business models for telecom operators. However, the level of IPTV penetration differs among operators, which might be closely related to individual operator's strategy for the broadband market and the regulatory environment. Controlling country-specific business environments, this study identifies the key factors influencing IPTV penetration rates.

Some governments avidly try to control online data, whether this is on social media, blogs, or both. And surprisingly, China only features in the top 10 for one category. India and Russia are well ahead, accounting for 19.86 and 19.75 percent of the overall number of removal requests (390,764), respectively. However, these two countries don’t always dominate the top spots across all channels. Turkey and the United States also put in a high number of requests, making up 9 percent and 6.91 percent of the overall requests received, respectively.