Sens Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and John Hoeven (R-ND) introduced bipartisan legislation to improve the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband coverage maps. The Improving Broadband Mapping Accuracy Act directs the FCC to initiate a rulemaking to consider using consumer-reported data and state and local data from government entities to improve broadband mapping accuracy while also considering ways that both fixed and mobile coverage data can be challenged. The bill will help close the digital divide by giving policymakers more accurate data on broadband coverage nationwide. “As the only member of Congress to formally challenge a federal broadband coverage map through the Mobility Fund Phase II challenge process, I know firsthand just how valuable public input can be in validating and supplementing the provider data that is used to draw these maps. This bill is a good first step, and I hope the FCC will take action to begin this rulemaking process,” said Sen Manchin.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) approved an application by AT&T Ohio to end its participation in the federal Lifeline program. AT&T Ohio will stop providing Lifeline discounts to the majority of its landline customers on June 11, 2019. AT&T Ohio will continue to provide landline telephone service to all of its current customers; however, customers wishing to continue to receive discounts through the Lifeline program will need to find another telephone provider. Affected AT&T Ohio customers that cannot find an alternative Lifeline provider are encouraged to notify the PUCO as soon as possible by Aug. 10, 2019. The PUCO will assist customers in finding an alternative Lifeline provider, and if one does not exist, AT&T Ohio will continue to provide a discount for an additional year. A PUCO staff investigation determined that wireless providers currently offering Lifeline discounts cover 99.85 percent of AT&T Ohio’s affected service territory. Lifeline is a federally funded program that provides monthly discounts to eligible consumers of landline, wireless or broadband services. AT&T Ohio serves 7,301 landline customers enrolled in the Lifeline program.

“The four elements of literacy—the ability to find, understand, create and act on information—are part of the ‘new literacies’ of the modern era: information literacy, digital literacy, media literacy and news literacy. … No one is born with these literacies. Education matters,” writes the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Eric Newton for the Knight Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy. "Whose job is it to help a community understand news?” Journalism is an inextricable component of a healthy democracy. But unlike running water or the Red Line, people can’t use it properly without understanding how it works. But journalists might actually feel a little relief knowing that they’re not in this alone. No one expects members of Congress to spend their days teaching constituents how the government works. Similarly, we shouldn’t leave the explanation of how journalism works only to journalists. All citizens need a baseline understanding before they’re pushed out into the world and left to fend for themselves.

[Glendora Meikle is an independent consultant based in Washington, DC. She was previously the deputy director of the International Reporting Project.]