Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Headlines Daily Digest
Today: Empowering and Connecting Communities through Digital Equity and Internet Adoption
Don't Miss:
The FCC Should Only Fund Scalable, Future-Proof Broadband Networks
Chairman Pai promised faster broadband expansion—Comcast cut spending instead
CenturyLink scored billions in CAF II funds, eyes the next giveaway: RDOF
Broadband/Internet
Universal service Fund
The FCC Should Only Fund Scalable, Future-Proof Broadband Networks | Read below | Jonathan Sallet | Analysis | Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Wireless
Broadcasting/Television
Elections and Media
Platforms/Content
Privacy
Telecom
Journalism
Labor
Company News
Policymakers
Stories From Abroad
Broadband/Internet
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has invested $60.9 million in high-speed broadband infrastructure that will create or improve e-Connectivity for more than 11,000 rural households, 81 farms, 73 businesses, 16 educational facilities, 12 critical community facilities and two health care facilities in rural Missouri. The following five projects throughout the state were announced:
- Mid-States Services LLC will use a $3 million loan to provide unserved and underserved members in and around Trenton (MO) with Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband services. This investment is expected to reach 566 households, a highway patrol office and an elementary school.
- Total Highspeed LLC will use a $20.1 million loan and a $20.1 million grant to build a Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to improve broadband services to families and businesses in rural Greene County. This investment is expected to reach 8,683 households, 20 pre-subscribed farms, 15 pre-subscribed businesses, eight critical community facilities, 12 educational facilities and a health care center.
- Gascosage Electric Cooperative, serving Camden, Maries, Miller, Phelps and Pulaski counties, will use a $7 million loan and a $7 million grant to develop an FTTP broadband network for its most rural areas. The investment is expected to reach 20 pre-subscribed farms, 20 pre-subscribed businesses, 1,177 households and two fire protection districts.
- Green Hills Telephone Corporation will use a $2.6 million grant to expand its FTTP network to rural areas in Caldwell and Livingston counties. This investment is expected to reach 20 pre-subscribed farms, 20 pre-subscribed businesses, 546 households, a fire protection district and two educational facilities.
- Marshall Municipal Utilities will use a $575,000 loan and a $575,000 grant to provide high-quality internet access to rural areas of Saline County. By expanding its current service area, an additional 21 pre-subscribed farms, 18 pre-subscribed businesses, 763 households, a private school and a nursing home will have access to broadband.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has invested $15.5 million in a high-speed broadband infrastructure project that will create or improve rural e-Connectivity for 2,609 rural households, 12 pre-subscribed businesses and 16 pre-subscribed farms in Iberville, Pointe Coupee and St. Landry (LA) parishes. Star Telephone Company will use a $7.7 million ReConnect Program grant and a $7.7 million ReConnect Program loan to deploy 154 miles of optical fiber and 95 miles of drop optical fiber cable to the premises. The project will cover 136 square miles in Iberville, Pointe Coupee and St. Landry parishes.
I want to propose that we use this opportunity to reaffirm what is fundamental: our commitment to a global and open internet for all. In the age of the always-on internet, the idea of suddenly flicking connectivity off like a switch sounds dystopian. But for so many people in so many places this is becoming a reality. 21 countries shut down the internet 122 times in 2019 alone. That means there were more internet shutdowns in 2019 than ever before. These shutdowns are not just the instruments of authoritarian regimes, they have been used by democracies trying to tackle problems, too. This means freedom is being curtailed by the very tools that a decade ago we believed would liberate us.
If you are thinking this does not concern you because off of this is happening a world away, I understand...you might think this is at some distance from what could happen in the United States. But you might want to think again. Here’s why: Back in 1942, Congress made changes to [the Communications Act of 1934], specifically to Section 606 of Title 47 of the United States Code—or as it’s better known, Section 706 of the Communications Act. Section 706 allows the President to shut down or take control of “any facility or station for wire communication” if he proclaims “that there exists a state or threat of war involving the United States.” It remains true that if a sitting President wants to shut down the internet or selectively cut off a service, all it takes is an opinion from his Attorney General that Section 706 gives him the authority to do so.
We should acknowledge that internet shutdowns can stunt elections and the democratic process, threaten human rights, batter economies, and disrupt modern life. Then we should get to work. We can start in the US by revisiting Section 706. The time has come for a modern assessment of this language, what it means, and what it should mean in the digital age. We can ask how this power squares with the constitution and ask what role there should be for the legislative and judicial branches. The US should develop a formal policy on government-directed internet shutdowns, informed by the experience of the State Department, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and Federal Communications Commission. Then we should share this expertise in global fora so that we can work worldwide to reduce these outages. Moreover, I think we need to have this discussion if we are committed to an open internet for all. Because without it our own laws could be contorted to support such outages. Because without it we can expect the number of government-directed internet shutdowns to grow.
Facebook and MCNC, the non-profit operator of the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN) are “co-investing” to build a high-speed fiber network interconnecting the rural North Carolina communities of Dobson and Forest City. The latter community is home to a huge data center owned by Facebook. MCNC provides backbone connectivity throughout large portions of North Carolina, including areas where it’s difficult to make a business case for fiber deployment. Over the years MCNC has received funding from the broadband stimulus program, the Golden LEAF Rural Broadband Initiative and other sources. The Golden LEAF Foundation is a rather unique non-profit economic development organization that was funded, in part, from a 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with cigarette manufacturers to assist tobacco-dependent, economically distressed and rural communities across the state.
Comcast reduced capital spending on its cable division in 2019, devoting less money to network extensions and improvements despite a series of government favors that were supposed to accelerate broadband expansions. "For the twelve months ended December 31, 2019, Cable capital expenditures decreased 10.5 percent to $6.9 billion," down from $7.7 billion in 2018, Comcast, the nation's largest home Internet provider, said in its earnings announcement. "Cable capital expenditures represented 11.9 percent of Cable revenue compared to 13.8 percent in 2018." 2019 was the second straight year that Comcast lowered its overall cable capital expenditures (though Comcast's spending on line extensions and scalable infrastructure rose in 2018).
This wasn't supposed to happen, according to claims that Internet service providers and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai made in order to push through the repeal of network neutrality rules and other deregulatory measures. Chairman Pai repeatedly argued that net neutrality rules caused broadband providers to reduce capital expenditures. After his net neutrality repeal took effect in June 2018, he claimed that the repeal and other FCC deregulation caused investment to rise.
This week the Federal Communications Commission is expected to create the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. As proposed, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund will make available $20.4 billion to subsidize deployment of high-speed internet networks to rural areas that don’t have adequate service now. Because the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund represents the vast majority of rural broadband funds available to the FCC over the next ten years, it’s important to make sure the Commission does it right – with an eye on the types of networks unserved communities will need at the end of the decade, not just right now. And, as we recommend in Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s, the starting point for federal funding of future-proof networks should be a requirement of 100/100 Mbps service without usage limits and latency low enough to run interactive video applications (like videoconferencing) for the foreseeable future. Policymakers are grappling with the challenge of ensuring that broadband deployment is as successful in the next decade as the provisions of electricity and telephone service were in the 20th century. But, as it happens, the goals of fiscal responsibility and better broadband are best achieved by funding future-proof networks now.
[Jonathan Sallet is a Benton Senior Fellow]
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Federal Communications Commission alerted Lifeline carriers, beneficiaries, and the public to the potential for widespread carrier non-compliance with the Lifeline usage rule. The Advisory provides examples of usage rule violations the OIG has encountered in its ongoing investigations of Lifeline carriers, including reimbursements sought for subscriber accounts that have never had any qualifying usage. OIG warns all Lifeline carriers to examine their usage monitoring mechanisms and take appropriate remedial measures if problems are discovered.
CenturyLink has benefited the most from the Connect America Fund (CAF) II, a Federal Communications Commission program that has awarded Universal Service Funds to telecommunication operators to build broadband in unserved and underserved areas of the US, especially rural areas. CenturyLink has received $506 million per year since 2015 in CAF II awards, which will total more than $3 billion over the six-year period from 2015 to 2020. Now, the FCC has proposed a follow-on program to CAF. This program is named the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and the FCC is all but certain to approve RDOF Jan 30. For CenturyLink and other incumbents, RDOF will extend their CAF II funding for one additional year, through 2021. But in the longer term, RDOF is likely to be less a boon for incumbent telecommunication companies than CAF II has been.
RDOF will provide about 24% more money than the CAF II program, but the FCC has designed the program to help independent broadband providers, not just the incumbents. Small fixed wireless broadband provider Intelliwave Broadband CEO Chris Cooper said the FCC wants to make sure the widest number of rural providers participate in RDOF, not just the traditional local exchange carriers. “In rural America it’s really the independent providers stepping into that underserved niche,” said Cooper. “We compete with Charter, Frontier, CenturyLink and AT&T — either where they’re not providing or where the plant has been neglected for so long. We love to compete against the ILECS.” The FCC is setting up RDOF differently than CAF II: It will set up a reverse auction in which participants compete to underbid each other, there will be one winner awarded per geographic area, and winners will be based not just on cost but also on speed and latency requirements. Also, the incumbents will not have the right of first refusal, which they had with CAF II, showing that the FCC is interested in introducing competition from independent broadband players.
New America's Open Technology Institute urged the Federal Communications Commission to abandon a cynical set of proposals that would weaken the Lifeline program and jeopardize consumer privacy. In comments filed with Public Knowledge, OTI argued that these proposals would exacerbate the digital divide and harm low-income Americans. OTI and Public Knowledge argue that the FCC must 1) encourage more qualifying subscribers to participate in the program; 2) abandon its proposals to ask questions of Lifeline subscribers that would threaten to discourage participation; 3) reject its proposal to monitor usage of Lifeline by its recipients; 4) continue to allow carriers to offer Lifeline subscribers free handsets with their service; and 5) protect the privacy and digital security of Lifeline participants.
Free Press condemned the Federal Communications Commission for waging war on the poor as the agency moved forward with a proceeding to deny essential broadband and telephone subsidies to low-income people. In comments filed as part of several FCC rulemaking proceedings on the Lifeline program, which offers modest subsidies to poor households seeking more affordable access to communications, Free Press questioned the sincerity of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s alleged desire to connect low-income communities. “The [rulemaking] is merely a feint,” wrote Free Press. “While claiming to improve program integrity, it would instead significantly constrain the Lifeline program by placing arbitrary burdens on low-income people.”
Free Press is especially concerned with two proposals. One would retool the program to preference those who would only adopt broadband with Lifeline support by asking fully eligible people invasive questions to further justify their need. The other proposal would require carriers to charge a fee on handsets received at the time of enrollment, even if the mobile providers would typically provide those devices free of charge to customers.
Since day one as a Federal Communications Commissioner, I have been speaking up and speaking out to advance diversity in broadcast media. I am also focused more broadly on what we as public servants should be doing to achieve the mandate in the Communications Act of making communications available to all Americans. We must do better in fulfilling the FCC's obligation to promote ownership by women and people of color. In one of my first votes as a Commissioner, I observed that the FCC was failing to make good on its statutory mandate to collect workforce diversity, or equal employment opportunity (EEO), data from broadcasters. It is still not clear to me how, for nearly twenty years, the FCC ignored Congress’s will by not collecting this information. That means we have had zero visibility into the diversity of station management and news and production teams. I will continue to work to re-open this issue going forward so we have the data necessary to fully and meaningfully engage on it.
The Federal Communications Commission released an eleven-page list of accomplishments under 3 years of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's leadership, with the following categories:
- Bridging the Digital Divide: Providing billions of dollars for rural broadband buildout, removing red tape, supporting precision agriculture, boosting telehealth, and more
- Promoting Innovation and Investment: Accelerating 5G deployment, freeing up more spectrum, approving innovative technologies, and more
- Protecting Consumers: Combating illegal robocalls, strengthening rural call completion, improving accessibility, and more
- Enhancing Public Safety: Improving emergency alerts, strengthening 911 calling, protecting network security, and more
- Transparency and Process Reforms: Providing drafts of agenda items to the public, establishing the Office of Economics and Analytics, and more
- Eliminating and Modernizing Outdated Regulations: Getting rid of outdated rules and regulations while updating others for the digital age
Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division announced the appointment of Alexander Okuliar to serve as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General. He will be responsible for civil merger and conduct investigations and litigation. Alex’s 20-year career has taken him through tours at both federal antitrust agencies and the private sector. Most recently, Alex was a partner in the antitrust group of an international law firm where he represented clients in transactions and litigation, with an emphasis on matters involving technology, data, media, and finance. From 2012-2015, he was Attorney Advisor to Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen of the Federal Trade Commission, where he advised the Commissioner on merger reviews, conduct investigations, and administrative litigation before the agency, as well as key privacy and competition policy developments around the world. Earlier, from 2010-2012, he was a Trial Attorney in the Technology and Financial Services Section (then-Networks & Technology Enforcement Section) of the Antitrust Division, where he led numerous investigations, including of the proposed (and subsequently abandoned) merger between the New York Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse.
Alex is a frequent writer and speaker on competition policy issues associated with technology, data, digital markets and innovation, as well as the intersection of intellectual property and antitrust. He is an active member of the antitrust bar and has served in leadership roles at both the ABA Antitrust Law Section and Federalist Society.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2019. Redistribution of this email publication — both internally and externally — is encouraged if it includes this message. For subscribe/unsubscribe info email: headlines AT benton DOT org
Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
727 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL 60202
847-328-3049
headlines AT benton DOT org
Share this edition:
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society All Rights Reserved © 2019