Diversity and digital divide: Using the National Broadband Map to identify the non-adopters of broadband
This paper examines differences in fixed location broadband adoption rates among households of various demographic and socio-economic characteristics and in different geographic locations utilizing the Federal Communications Commission's census tract level adoption data, demographic data from American Community Survey and the census block level broadband availability data from National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Ordered probit models are estimated and used to conduct simulations in order to analyze the determinants of the broadband adoption rate. The results indicate that, although available in most tracts, the lack of broadband availability can still be a deterrent to its adoption. Furthermore, simulations indicate that, in non-metropolitan areas, policies targeting broadband availability would have a larger impact on adoption than policies targeting income or education, for instance. Additionally, where broadband is available, the census tracts with more educated, wealthy and older people who have more choices of broadband providers have higher fixed broadband subscription rates. The positive impact of older population on adoption rate contradicts the conventional belief that the older generation is left behind. Drawing from the previous literature, the older population may be more likely to have a home broadband subscription through traditional technologies, while their younger counterparts, who adapt to new technologies quicker, may be subscribing to mobile broadband.
Big Telecom Convinced Wyoming’s Politicians to Rewrite a Community Broadband Bill
A bill introduced in Wyoming that set aside money to invest in municipal-owned internet was revamped before it passed to favor Big Telecom. The bill originally listed “a city, town or county or joint powers board,” as eligible for state funding to set up a local ISP, but after consulting with industry lobbyists, elected officials changed the bill and it now limits funds to “public private partnerships.” The bill, which has passed both the state house and senate and is expected to be signed by Gov Matt Mead (R-WY), established a $10 million fund for building broadband infrastructure under the state’s ENDOW initiative—Economically Needed Diversity Options for Wyoming. The original text of the bill was fairly flexible, allowing towns or counties to apply for funds to establish municipal networks: publicly-owned and operated ISPs that function kind of like a public utility. But that language was changed in a substitute bill that was introduced in its place, in part due to the demands of telecom lobbyists, according to one state senator.
This California Bill Would Bring Back Net Neutrality With A Vengeance
On Dec 14, the Federal Communications Commission voted to abolish network neutrality regulations. The same day, California State Senator Scott Wiener (D-CA-11) released a video saying that he wanted to revive those policies in state law. Now his bill, SB822, hits the California legislature, with co-sponsors – all of whom are Democrats – in the Senate and Assembly. If the legislation passes, and allies in states like New York and New Jersey also introduce bills, a huge chunk of the US population and economy would be subject to regulations that the federal government adamantly opposes. They would join Washington State, whose governor signed a tough net neutrality law on March 5. This is California’s second net neutrality bill of 2018. A shorter one passed the state senate at the end of January and will move to the Assembly in late spring. But its sponsor, CA Senate President Kevin de Leon, will be gone by then as he mounts a campaign for the US Senate. While Washington State’s law runs about 4 pages, State Sen Wiener’s proposal runs 11 (though with a lot of repetition). It includes the big-three prohibitions: against blocking and slowing down traffic for consumers, or providing extra bandwidth if content providers pay extra.
Trump administration cites augmented reality, satellite broadband as ‘transformative’ infrastructure projects
The Trump administration wants to spend $20 billion on a range of risky but potentially “transformative” infrastructure projects, such as satellite networks to provide rural broadband, new launchpads for private rockets, and “augmented reality” technologies to visualize and manage urban traffic congestion. The administration “is already prepared with ideas” for “surgically-targeted” projects, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told senators as part of a broad, multiagency push for momentum on a 10-year, $200 billion infrastructure proposal facing head winds on Capitol Hill. Sec Ross was joined by the secretaries of transportation, agriculture, energy and labor for testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee, and offered new details on “bold and innovative projects … that would not otherwise attract private investment without federal incentives because of the risk.” But the phalanx of cabinet chiefs provided no new information on the more pedestrian but pivotal question of how the president’s team would pay for its infrastructure aspirations.
Citizens Against Government Waste Express Concerns About Trump Rural Infrastructure Plan
Citizens Against Government Waste has a bone to pick with President Donald Trump's infrastructure plan, which leaves the distribution of $50 billion in rural infrastructure seed money to the states and localities. In a letter to Office of Manqagement and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, CAGW, joined by Americans for Tax Reform and others, said that while they generally support states spending money over the feds, they are worried about the potential for waste, fraud and abuse and duplication of spending given the focus on rural broadband. They point to the problems with the 2009 stimulus bill's $7.2 billion in broadband funding, which included understaffing, inadequate evaluation of grants and lack of oversight, which were identified by the Government Accountability Office and the Commerce Department's Inspector General. The National Telecommunications & Information Administration, which is within Commerce, oversaw the distribution of some of the funds. Among the questions they want Mulvaney to answer are whether there will be a specific agency overseeing rural infrastructure funds, how it will measure whether the plan's goals are being met, how will the feds make sure that the states are not using the funds to overbuild existing private-sector efforts.
New York City Council Suggests FCC Reconsider Changes to Lifeline Program
The Council of the City of New York sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on March 13, 2018, to urge the FCC to reverse course on recent and proposed actions regarding the Lifeline program. They urged the FCC to: ensure Lifeline remains accessible for those who now depend on it; maintain mobile voice-only service options for all Lifeline-eligible consumers rather than just those in rural areas; not require members to pay into the program when services exceed the discount; and retain and support those free plans that are priced at the same level as the program subsidy and offer limited minutes and a free cellphone, among other things.
Rep Eshoo to FCC: Rescind Spectrum Sales to AT&T, Verizon
In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) wants the FCC to rethink its approval of deals putting high-band spectrum in the hands of AT&T and Verizon. The FCC's Wireless Bureau approved the transfer of millimeter-band (high-band) spectrum licenses from Straight Path to Verizon and FiberTower to AT&T in settlements with those companies for not building out the spectrum as they agreed to do when they acquired it. Rep Eshoo said the deals put too much valuable spectrum in the hands of companies that already had a lot, and that the FCC should have revoked the spectrum licenses of Straight Path and FiberTower and auctioned them rather than reward those companies with billions of dollars from the sales. Verizon paid more than $3 billion and AT&T about $2 billion for the spectrum. "The bureau-level decisions awarded investors in Straight Path and FiberTower multi-billion dollar windfalls at the expense of taxpayers," she told Chairman Pai. She complained that selling the spectrum to the largest incumbents further concentrated high-band spectrum with companies that dominated the low-band spectrum for decades.
FEC Gets the Ball Rolling on Online Political Ads Rules
The Federal Election Commission wants the public to weigh in on proposals that would shed light on the people buying political ads on Facebook, Google and other online platforms. The commission unanimously voted to release two proposals that would expand disclosure requirements for internet political ads for public comment. The new regulations—the first update to online political advertising rules since 2006–would require web platforms to disclose who paid for any “express advocacy” ads, which call on viewers to vote for or against a specific candidate. The proposed rulemaking comes after investigations revealed Russian actors purchased thousands of ads on Facebook and Twitter in an effort to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. Though current laws already require online ads to include disclaimers, the rules for how those disclaimers should look remain ambiguous. As such, different websites treat political ads in different ways. “The point of this rulemaking is to provide even more clarity, because obviously technology has changed,” FEC Chair Caroline Hunter said. Both proposals would require all ads to include disclaimers, but they differ on how much information those disclaimers must contain.
What To Expect When You're Expecting an Antitrust Trial
One of the most important antitrust cases in recent decades, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) move to block AT&T from acquiring Time Warner, goes to trial in Washington, DC, on March 19. The significance of the case goes well beyond its impact on this huge transaction and on future media mergers. Here, with some necessary simplification, is what non-lawyers will want to know as the trial proceeds. There are three reasons why this case is different from others that have gone to trial in recent memory. First, the companies are not direct competitors; they seek to combine a program producer (Time Warner) with a content distributor (AT&T). Second, when the government has settled vertical cases, it has often negotiated “behavioral” conditions, in which the merging parties agree not to engage in certain possibly anti-competitive practices for a number of years. In this instance, the DOJ refused to settle unless AT&T agreed to “structural” remedies by divesting ownership of significant portions of the Time Warner assets. Third, and most controversially, there is a nearly-unprecedented political underlay to the case.
[Andrew Jay Schwartzman is the Benton Senior Counselor at the Public Interest Communications Law Project at Georgetown University Law Center's Institute for Public Representation (IPR)]
Judge rules for AT&T on key part of Time Warner deal defense
US District Judge Richard Leon has rejected a Justice Department motion to limit evidence AT&T can present in its defense of its proposed purchase of Time Warner. As a result of the ruling, AT&T gets to keep one key element of its argument for the deal, after previously losing another significant fight over its planned defense. The government had asked the court to exclude evidence of a November 2017 offer from Turner (a division of Time Warner that includes CNN, TBS, and TNT) to distributors including cable and satellite companies. The offer says that, for seven years after the purchase's closing, distributors could invoke arbitration if they are unable to reach a "satisfactory distribution agreement for Turner networks," and additionally forbids Turner from blacking out any of its channels on a Turner distributor during the arbitration process, a common tactic in such disputes. AT&T will now point to its arbitration offer as evidence that prices would not increase. Turner made this offer in order to guarantee that distributors -- and thus consumers -- would not face higher subscription fees once AT&T acquired Time Warner, at least for a time.
AT&T/Time Warner merger will raise TV bills $436 million a year, US says
AT&T's proposed purchase of Time Warner would raise the total amount Americans pay for TV service by $436 million a year, the US Department of Justice alleges in its lawsuit attempting to block the merger. AT&T scoffed at the government's calculations, disputing the methodology and saying that even if the DOJ is correct, the average customer bill would rise by only 45 cents a month. The DOJ cites calculations by economics professor Carl Shapiro of the University of California at Berkeley, who will be one of the government's expert witnesses at the trial, which starts March 19 at the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The DOJ didn't say what the average increase for each consumer would be. AT&T's brief said the DOJ's projections amount to an "insubstantial 45-cent monthly increase, all of 0.4 percent per bill, which is where the government currently stakes its case." A 45-cent monthly increase would add up to $36 million a month if the numbers are based on a nationwide TV subscriber base of about 80 million households. But the increase to customers of non-AT&T providers would be more than that. AT&T has about 24 million of the nation's TV customers via DirecTV and its wireline services. AT&T also disputes the government's contention that it will be able to "drive harder bargains with AT&T's distribution rivals, forcing them to pay higher prices to avoid losing access to Turner programming."
Why Sinclair’s latest plan to sell major TV stations has critics crying foul
Sinclair Broadcast Group's new plan to help it win federal approval to become the nation's largest broadcaster is pretty brazen, critics say. The Maryland-based company recently proposed selling two major TV stations to satisfy the government's ownership limit and secure its deal to buy Tribune Media for $3.9 billion. The problem with the arrangement, critics say, is that the stations' prospective buyers have close ties to Sinclair's executive chairman. According to filings with the Federal Communications Commission, Sinclair plans to sell one station to an auto dealer who is a business associate of chairman David Smith and the other one to Cunningham Broadcasting Corp. The estate of Smith's mother owns Cunningham, according to the Baltimore Sun. The strategy is Sinclair's attempt to maintain control over the stations, critics say. “Sinclair has a long history of trying to evade the FCC's ownership rules,” said Craig Aaron, president of Free Press, an advocacy group that supports diverse media ownership. “This is the latest and most brazen example.” If Sinclair receives regulatory approval from the FCC and the Department of Justice, then auto dealership executive Steven Fader would buy WGN in Chicago for $60 million. Sinclair would also sell WPIX in New York to Cunningham for $15 million. Both federal agencies are reviewing the proposed tie-up because it involves the transfer of licenses and is large enough to warrant an antitrust review. The sale prices set for the stations are well below what a business without ties to Sinclair would pay, Aaron said, pointing to the 2002 sale of WPWR in Chicago, for $425 million. He also emphasized that the sales agreements give Sinclair joint control over the stations and grant the company the ability to buy them back in the future. “In order to get under the national cap, Sinclair would pretend to sell these stations, but they have no intention of relinquishing any control,” Aaron said.
Tech Leaders Are Growing Up (Again). That’s a Good Thing.
For years, the self-appointed leaders of Silicon Valley were young people — mostly men — with age-appropriate behavior. Their successes were cheered, and their sins were shrugged off as the cost of innovation. There’s a lot of growing up happening in today’s tech industry, where former whiz kids made their fortunes and are now settling down, starting families and starting to think about their legacies.
- Tech leaders are becoming more realistic and introspective.
- Their new outlook is making them more protective and risk-averse.
- It also may make their companies more vulnerable.
FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel Keynote Remarks, Hispanic Radio Conference
[Speech] As of last month, official statistics suggest 400,000 residents of Puerto Rico still don’t have electricity. But in my travels, many people told me they thought the true number was even higher. That means American citizens are still living without necessities like health care, hot meals, and basic communications. So not only has this prolonged power outage cut into the economic security of the island, it has put people’s lives at risk. That’s not easy to see in person—or even recount to you here and now. So now let me offer the good news. Because I saw that, too. I saw fierce resiliency in the face of these difficulties. I saw hope in the prospect for rebuilding. I saw pride in the island and its Hispanic heritage. I also saw just what radio stations on the island did—and I think their stories need to be told. So let me start with WKAQ. It’s a radio station in San Juan that broadcasts on 580 kHz with a Spanish-language talk radio format. Its studios are in Guaynabo in modern building with cool marble everywhere—and lots of windows. In fact, the top of the building is a big expanse of circular glass. So when Hurricane Maria first started to roar, WKAQ hunkered down. They were determined to ride out the storm and offer the news and information they knew their listeners needed. But when the winds really arrived, the glass top of the building shattered. The rain came down, and turned the stairs into a virtual waterfall. The office seemed to explode. Ruben Sanchez was on the air during a live interview with Governor Ricardo Rossello when this happened. He interrupted the back-and-forth with the island’s highest-level official to announce that the studio was now vulnerable but he assured his listeners they would do what they could to stay on air...
For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It
[Editorial] When we decided to devote our April 2018 magazine to the topic of race, we thought we should examine our own history before turning our reportorial gaze to others. Race is not a biological construct, as writer Elizabeth Kolbert explains in this issue, but a social one that can have devastating effects. “So many of the horrors of the past few centuries can be traced to the idea that one race is inferior to another,” she writes. “Racial distinctions continue to shape our politics, our neighborhoods, and our sense of self.” How we present race matters. I hear from readers that National Geographic provided their first look at the world. Our explorers, scientists, photographers, and writers have taken people to places they’d never even imagined; it’s a tradition that still drives our coverage and of which we’re rightly proud. And it means we have a duty, in every story, to present accurate and authentic depictions—a duty heightened when we cover fraught issues such as race. University of Virginia Professor John Edwin Mason found that until the 1970s National Geographicall but ignored people of color who lived in the United States, rarely acknowledging them beyond laborers or domestic workers. Meanwhile it pictured “natives” elsewhere as exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages—every type of cliché. National Geographic did little to push its readers beyond the stereotypes ingrained in white American culture.
Sourcing Innovation from a ‘Rural Journalism Lab’
[Commentary] Building on our previous research through the Tow Center and a workshop we held in August 2017 on strengthening storytelling networks and civic engagement in this region of Kentucky, over the past few months we embarked on a series of experiments with the Bratcher brothers in what we’ve coined a “rural journalism innovation lab.” Our work explored a range of approaches—around promotion, news products, and community engagement—aimed at driving residents into a deeper relationship with The Ohio County Monitor and supporting the outlet’s move to a $5-monthly subscription model, supported by very limited advertising. What we found is that while Facebook drives the most traffic to the site, its algorithm over-prioritizes local crime stories from The Monitor, pushing stories into local residents’ feed that don’t drive the kind of readership likely to translate to subscriptions. A number of Facebook ad spends to promote Monitor-sponsored events and gift subscriptions also weren’t useful in getting people to show up or subscribe. Thus far, livestreaming community events has proved unreliable, due to unpredictable internet connectivity at venues in the rural county, and a weekly podcast was hard to promote and challenging for readers to discover and follow.
[Sam Ford is a media/journalism strategy consultant, research affiliate with MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing, and adjunct faculty member in the Western Kentucky University Department of Communication. Andrea Wenzel is an assistant professor at Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication. ]
Google Will Prioritize Stories for Paying News Subscribers
Apparently, Google users who subscribe to newspapers will find articles from those publications appearing higher in their search results, part of the company’s efforts to help media companies recruit and retain paying readers. will also begin sharing search data that show who’s most likely to buy a subscription, said the people, who asked to be anonymous because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Google executives plan to disclose specific details at an event in New York on March 20, according to the people.
Why Fox News will probably not be penalized for airing a Seth Rich conspiracy theory
By Fox News's own admission, a retracted report in May about the deceased Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was bad journalism. Nevertheless, the network is well-positioned to fend off a lawsuit brought by Rich's family that alleges “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” according to legal experts. The Rich family would have to demonstrate that Fox News's actions were “outrageous,” which sounds colloquial but is actually a technical term and “a fairly high standard,” according to Doris Brogan, a law professor at Villanova University. “ 'Outrageous' is something that would be totally unacceptable in normal society,” Brogan said. “The conduct involved has to be more than just inappropriate, more than just rude, more than just nasty. That's a high hurdle.”
Further Implementation of Recommendations Is Needed to Better Manage Information Technology Acquisitions and Operations
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and federal agencies have taken steps to improve the management of information technology (IT) acquisitions and operations through a series of initiatives, to include (1) data center consolidation, (2) implementation of incremental development practices, (3) approval of IT acquisitions, (4) implementation of key IT workforce practices, and (5) addressing aging legacy IT systems. As of March 2018, the agencies had fully implemented about 59 percent of the approximately 800 related recommendations that GAO made during fiscal years 2010 through 2015. However, important additional actions are needed. [more at the URL below]
Arthur C. Brooks to step down as president of the American Enterprise Institute in 2019
Tully Friedman and Daniel D’Aniello, co-chairs of American Enterprise Institute’s Board of Trustees, announced that Arthur C. Brooks intends to step down as president in the summer of 2019, after a decade of distinguished service. Brooks had asked AEI’s Board of Trustees to commence the search for his successor at the annual executive board meeting, and informed scholars and staff of his decision March 14. Brooks joined AEI as a visiting scholar in 2007 while also teaching at Syracuse University. Brooks became the eleventh president of AEI on January 1, 2009. D’Aniello and Friedman said that a search committee will be formed in the coming weeks, and a global search will be conducted for Brooks’ successor.
FCC Names NY Commissioner Sayre to Joint Board on Universal Service
The Federal Communications Commission appoints the Honorable Gregg C. Sayre, Commissioner, New York State Public Service Commission, to serve on the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service. Commissioner Sayre replaces the Honorable Ronald A. Brise, former Commissioner, Florida Public Service Commission, who vacated his position on the Universal Service Joint Board.
Google targeted under European Union plan to regulate search engines
The European Commission is for the first time preparing to regulate how search engines such as Google operate, under draft proposals designed to bolster the rights of businesses and app makers that rely on big internet giants to sell their services. The European Commission has expanded its plans to regulate the relationship online platforms such as Amazon and Apple have with vendors to also include the practices of search engines such as Google. Under the plans, the tech platforms would be required to provide companies with more information about how their ranking algorithms work. They would also need to offer businesses, app makers, and traders a formal complaint process if they were demoted or de-listed without explanation. Under the rules, search engines will also need to provide companies with “upfront” information about how their ranking algorithm works and assurances that “that the ranking is conducted in good faith”. They will also need to tell businesses if they can pay to bump up their prominence in search results.
UK: WhatsApp sharing user data with Facebook would be illegal
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the United Kingdom’s data protection watchdog, has concluded that WhatsApp’s sharing of user data with its parent company Facebook would have been illegal. The messaging app was forced to pause sharing of personal data with Facebook in November 2016, after the ICO said it had cause for concern. The ICO opened a full investigation into the matter in August that year. Elizabeth Denham, the information commissioner, said her investigation found that “WhatsApp has not identified a lawful basis of processing for any such sharing of personal data” and that “if they had shared the data, they would have been in contravention of the first and second data protection principles of the Data Protection Act.” The ICO said WhatsApp had failed to provide adequate information to users explaining the processing and sharing of their data, and that sharing it with Facebook would require processing that is “incompatible with the purpose for which such data was obtained.” In response WhatsApp has signed an undertaking declaring that it will not share any EU user data with Facebook until the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on 25 May. It also stated that it would only share data in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation after 25 May.
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.
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