Friday, March 4, 2022
Headlines Daily Digest
Today: Broadband Infrastructure Playbook and Your Community’s Path to Overcoming the Digital Divide
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How can the FCC deliver better broadband to rural health care providers?
Digital Equity Takes Center Stage in US Cities
Key Broadband Map Contract Finalized for Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric
Digital Equity
Ex-FCC Leaders Tell 2nd Circ. To Stop NY $15 Broadband Law | Law360
FCC and Virginia Department of Social Services announce a new computer matching program for Lifeline/ACP verification | Federal Communications Commission
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Digital Equity
This Black History Month, it is impossible to ignore how economic disparities that have tormented Black and Brown Americans for centuries have also invited digital inequities into the most impoverished communities. Broadband funding is not enough. It is time for transformational broadband policies that support economic resilience in every household. At a time when the labor of Black and Brown Americans was still being used to build wealth from which they were systematically excluded, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was at the center of a movement to welcome all Americans into the U.S. economy. He vigorously advocated for economic reform and was unafraid to name its role in perpetuating injustice. Decades later, digital poverty has become just as problematic as economic inequality. Both make just outcomes even more distant, and grievous economic consequences inevitable, for already disenfranchised populations. With billions of dollars in the pipeline for broadband, it is imperative for both appointed and elected federal, state, and local officials to revisit MLK’s calls for economic justice and the dreams deferred by those most impacted by the digital divide. Forward-looking public policy strategies that promote widespread digital citizenship also support America’s long-overdue promise for a multi-racial democracy where all Americans have equal economic opportunities.
[Francella Ochillo is a Technology and Public Purpose Project Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.]
Recent years have seen an explosion in demand for telehealth services, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, that has increased the bandwidth needs of rural health care providers. The Federal Communications Commission is proposing changes to its Rural Health Care Program rules that are designed to ensure that rural healthcare providers receive the funding necessary to access broadband and telecommunications services to provide vital healthcare services. The program provides support, capped at approximately half a billion dollars each year, to assist rural health care providers with the costs of broadband and other communications services. We dive into how the FCC is considering setting rates for the program, how to prioritize funding, and equity and inclusion issues.
Armed with new tools, funding, partnerships, data, and social awareness, many groups, including libraries, see that a more equitable digital future is within reach. In this special report, you’ll find articles on:
- free resources for libraries, including the Toward Gigabit Libraries Toolkit
- statistics and context on broadband affordability and access
- federal funding that’s available now—and what’s on the policy horizon—for libraries working toward digital inclusion
- eight tips to advance digital equity immediately
- a round table discussion on community coalitions
With innovation, outreach, and collaboration, library workers are educating themselves, their communities, and their stakeholders on the growing need for digital inclusion efforts. This special report is intended to be a launch pad for further exploration and action.
AT&T recently announced multi-gigabit broadband plans on its fiber connections. The company has priced 2-Gbps broadband at $110 per month and 5-Gbps broadband at $180. AT&T isn’t the first company to offer multi-gigabit broadband speeds and joins other large internet service providers (ISPs). For now, multi-gigabit broadband is mostly a marketing gimmick. It’s a way for an ISP to tell the public that its networks are fast. But the same thing was said about Google Fiber in 2012 when the company introduced one-gigabit fiber at a time when the primary broadband products provided by cable companies were at 30 Mbps and 60 Mbps. In the decade since the Google Fiber announcement, the gigabit broadband product has been embraced by the public. OpenVault reported that at the end of the third quarter of 2021 that 11.4 percent of all U.S. households were subscribed to gigabit broadband products. It’s unlikely, for now, that ISPs will be selling very many subscriptions to multi-gigabit broadband. The most likely to succeed is Google Fiber, which has priced 2-gigabits at $100. It’s obvious that companies that set the price at $300 per month don’t expect many folks to buy. But I have to wonder if in ten years that 2-gigabit broadband will be a common product.
[Doug Dawson is President of CCG Consulting.]
Home internet is one of the most maddening services in the United States. But since the pandemic showed just how bad things have become, we’re beginning to see some change. Decades of one failed policy show how far the US has to go to achieve better, fairer online access for all. Over the past two decades, government regulators have written and rewritten rules that have landed on a straightforward goal: that Americans who live in apartment buildings may pick their internet provider, even if the landlord has a preferred provider. In many cases, that provider pays for the privilege. The idea is that if tenants have choices for internet service providers — as Americans often do with mobile phone companies or grocery stores — they’re more likely to find the product that they want at a fair price. But all this time, apartment owners and large internet service companies have found ways around the government rules. They have effectively blocked upstart internet companies from many buildings. Regulators know this, but not much has changed. The Federal Communications Commission recently took out its pencils again. On paper, people who live in apartments and public housing complexes will have more information and power to pick their own internet provider, no matter what their landlord wants. We’ll see.
[Shira Ovide writes the On Tech newsletter for the New York Times.]
Digital equity is having a moment. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the country to stay home in March 2020, the importance of digital equity became clear. While many folks had reliable high-speed Internet in their houses, up-to-date devices for accessing that Internet, and the skills to use it in meaningful ways, but across the country — in rural, suburban and urban communities — there was consistently a remaining percentage who did not. There was and still is a last mile for digital equity. “We’ve never had awareness like this, and I could have never thought this was going to be my reality,” said Angela Siefer, founder and executive director of the Ohio-based National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA). “I rarely have to explain to someone that the digital divide is important, and I can now jump right into solutions and on-the-ground strategies.” The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) earmarks $2.75 billion for it, a historic sum. With all that in mind, Government Technology spoke with more than two dozen people who work on digital equity and digital inclusion in the United States, from officials with state and local government agencies to policy experts to leaders of community-based nonprofit groups. What emerged was a new picture of last-mile digital equity, efforts to get the United States connected for good and prepare us for a productive and equitable online future.
Between the American Rescue Plan Act and the possible Build Back Better legislation, there’s a lot of federal funding headed to states and cities for investments in broadband. Representatives from across the state and the country were in South Bend (IN) on March 3 to talk about how to best use that funding. The city of South Bend partnered with Next Century Cities and the Pew Charitable Trusts to host a municipal broadband conference at the Innovation and Technology Conference Center on the former Studebaker site. In his opening remarks, South Bend Mayor James Mueller (D-IN) said the pandemic had driven home the importance of digital connectivity “in a 21st-century economy.” Mueller and several other presenters touched on the urban-rural divide in digital access, and that the best solutions often come from partnerships between local governments and their state and regional counterparts. Participants also discussed how cities could prepare to improve their broadband infrastructure and improve digital equity and inclusion.
For many months during the pandemic, Americans were forced to function remotely and were dependent upon internet access to stay connected with work or school. Those who lacked quality access fell behind. With recent passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act, $65 billion in federal funds will be used to expand broadband infrastructure to underserved communities across the US. The bill’s long overdue investment in broadband expansion offers great promise in bridging the digital divide between urban and rural America, but significant barriers still exist in terms of deployment, primarily due to outdated and inefficient utility pole access rules. Legislative action can and should be taken to modernize the pole processes and expedite broadband deployment. Congress should remove the barriers that cause delays for permits and access to poles. In addition to this, the North Carolina League of Municipalities has advocated for years for rolling back restrictive state laws to better enable partnerships between cities and private internet providers to improve service. Cities would provide the backbone for internet access because better internet service is vital to the economic survival of rural towns. With billions now available for broadband, enabling public-private partnerships is more critical than ever. The NC legislature must pass laws to assist, rather than hinder, these partnerships. At the very least, it should remove these restrictions as soon as possible.
[Bob Etheridge is a former US Representative in NC’s 2nd District. Scott Neisler is mayor in Kings Mountain and a NC League of Municipalities vice president.]
Wyoming is at the bottom of the list for access to affordable fast internet, according to Broadband Now. Increasing access to high-speed internet has been a focus of economic development efforts by Gov Mark Gordon (R-WY), and his predecessor Matt Mead (R-WY). In 2018 Wyoming began to ramp up broadband efforts, when the Legislature passed Senate File 100. The bill set aside $10 million to fund broadband expansion projects. But the grants went largely untouched because eligibility was limited to public/private partnerships, and, some argued, there wasn’t enough money on the table to get private providers on board. Now the sluggish and piecemeal nature of Wyoming’s broadband expansion is poised to change. An influx of federal funds has sped up the process; and larger internet service providers are now competing to build out service in rural and less profitable areas. Additional funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, may finally provide households and businesses across the state a chance to connect.
Internet providers across the state of Missouri to expand rural broadband access have been awarded $42.2 million from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Broadband Infrastructure Program for last-mile projects in 12 counties in Missouri including Marion, Shelby, and Monroe counties. The projects will result in broadband access for 13,094 unserved household across the state. Chariton Valley, the main fiber optic provider in Marion County, submitted project applications for 2,047 eligible locations near Hannibal, Palmyra, Clarence, and Monroe City. Tigerhawk Technologies CEO JR Bareis said his IT consulting firm works closely with Chariton Valley when it comes to broadband installation. He said Chariton wants to use that money to fill out internet coverage areas typically seen as a waste of time and money when compared to bigger projects.
A new program in Chattanooga (TN)’s Orchard Knob neighborhood will expand access to internet connectivity - as well as digital technology and services - to improve residents’ health and quality of life. The pilot program, which aims to reach 1,000 residents, will be funded through a more than $600,000 grant from TVA’s Connected Communities grant program. The goal is to increase the number of people with home internet in Orchard Knob and supply in-home technologies, such as smart home upgrades from Habitat for Humanity, as well as services, such as increased access to telemedicine from Parkridge Health System. The main mission of the pilot program is to improve health and quality of life for about 1,000 Orchard Knob residents, as well as to serve as a model of a holistic and equitable approach to community connectivity, officials said. Called “Connectivity and Health in Orchard Knob: A Smart Community Model for Equitable Access to Services for the 21st Century,” the program will be run by the following partners: Parkridge Health System, The Enterprise Center, EPB, green|spaces, and Habitat for Humanity.
Anderson County (SC) is not one of the most broadband-deprived areas of the state. In Anderson County’s municipal areas, internet customers are moving along at high (or at least, moderate) speed. Still, thousands of households and scores of businesses suffer the frustrations of slow internet service. The majority of the county benefits from moderate broadband speeds with pockets close to the city of Anderson and Greenville County seeing even faster access. But in Honea Path, Pendleton, Williamston and rural locations farther afield, communities packed with more than 200 households per square mile lack any broadband access, according to 2021 maps from the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff’s Broadband Office. Upcountry Fiber, a new partnership developed by the Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative and West Carolina Rural Telephone Cooperative seeks to bridge this the digital divide through one of its inaugural forays into the Upstate: a $15 million, 2,800-mile broadband expansion to Anderson enclaves with little or no access to high-speed internet. Close to 7,000 households and businesses will be put on the grid, according to the company.
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball announced exciting, new Transform Howard projects that will make remarkable progress in closing the digital divide in Howard County (MD) with broadband expansion to 85 percent of currently unserved households. Ball detailed three projects to implement public Wi-Fi and broadband in Elkridge to 100 households and expand broadband access in Western Howard County to 462 households. A recent survey of Howard County residents showed us that their use of internet-connected computers and other devices for school and education went from 36 percent to 59 percent. Telemedicine and health online usage increased from 28 percent to 81 percent. Using computers and internet access for telework went from 17 percent to 63 percent. The expansion of internet services to close the digital divide was one of the key recommendations made by the HoCo RISE Collaborative, which brought together 50 public and private sector stakeholders together to create a series of recommendations for pandemic recovery. In response, Howard County launched Transform Howard initiative in May 2021 aiming to expand digital inclusion and increase community access to broadband.
CostQuest Associates said it has officially been contracted to provide broadband location data needed to update the National Broadband Map. The Federal Communications Commission selected the company months ago but the contract award was delayed because LightBox, another company that bid on the contract, protested the decision. According to CostQuest, the US Government Accountability Office denied the protest in late February 2022. The company said that although the protest delayed the project timeline, the first version of the location data, to be known as the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric (BSLF), will be delivered later in 2022. The BSLF is designed to include the precise location of all broadband serviceable locations nationwide. As CostQuest explained, the BSLF “will be used to match broadband provider submissions of service availability, and other information, to build more granular broadband location maps.” The FCC recently gave providers a deadline of September 1, 2022, for submitting their service availability data.
Universal Service Fund
Federal Universal Service Support Mechanisms Quarterly Contribution Base for the Second Quarter 2022
The total projected collected interstate and international end-user revenue base to be used in determining the contribution factor for the Universal Service support mechanisms for 2Q2022 is $8,751,403,396.
Spectrum/Wireless
Senators Request FCC Provide More Information on Future Spectrum Auction Opportunities
Sens Roger Wicker, (R-MS) and John Thune (R-SD) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel requesting information on future spectrum auction opportunities and policy reforms that can be made to auction rules to promote international competitiveness, maximize spectrum use efficiency, and foster the rapid deployment of next-generation technologies. The FCC’s statutory authority to conduct spectrum auctions is set to expire later in 2022, absent Congressional action.
When Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile introduced the first 5G mobile services in the US three years ago, they promised 10-times faster connection speeds that would unlock a new era of technological advancements. Although no one expected doctors to immediately turn their scalpels over to robots, the telecommunications industry has loudly trumpeted an array of business opportunities such as using augmented reality as a way for online shoppers to try on clothes remotely. The three big US carriers have spent more than $100 billion on 5G airwaves and network upgrades, but they have little to no revenue or major new businesses to show for it. Moreover, the arrival of the technology has gone largely unnoticed by consumers, and the future fortunes the industry is banking on are far from certain. From the start, there have been challenges with the technology, like when AT&T Inc. confusingly branded 4G as “5G E.” Conspiracy theorists have tagged 5G as a source of harmful radiation and a spreader of the coronavirus. More recently, airlines have complained that some frequencies could interfere with radar and jeopardize air safety. To date, the biggest knock against 5G is that it’s been a non-event.
As our daily lives increasingly depend on wireless services for everything from telemedicine to distance learning, the demand for a new wireless spectrum for 5G and next-generation Wi-Fi has exploded. The spectrum to meet that demand must come from somewhere. Congress routinely orders the Federal Communications Commission to find more spectrum (as it did here), which requires the FCC to reallocate spectrum from some wireless services while developing new rules to protect existing ones. Although the FCC has the hard job of figuring out how to find more spectrum for Americans while protecting safety services (like altimeters), the other federal agencies — focused exclusively on their own missions — fight to maintain the status quo. We cannot continue to lead the world in mobile technology and secure our digital future if the federal government remains at war with itself. It will take consistent pressure from the White House and members of Congress to move agencies to a more productive relationship with the FCC. Otherwise, we will continue to see these fights undermine the rollout of much-needed wireless services to all Americans.
[Harold Feld is Public Knowledge’s Senior Vice President.]
Verizon has set a goal of becoming the only nationwide broadband provider. According to the company, this will be made possible through a combination of Fios fiber broadband, Verizon Home fixed wireless, and satellite broadband service. The company already has Fios available to 16 million locations, which will increase to more than 18 million by year-end 2025, when the company expects to have 8 million Fios internet subscribers. In addition, the company has set a goal of making fixed wireless available to 50 million households and 14 million businesses by year-end 2025, when it expects to have between 4 million and 5 million subscribers for the service. For rural areas and to serve global enterprise customers, Verizon expects to leverage its partnership with Amazon involving Amazon’s Project Kuiper low-earth orbit satellite broadband, noted Kyle Malady, Verizon executive vice president of global networks and technology. The company expects to begin testing the service in 2023, Malady said.
Verizon will cover more than 175 million people with its 5G Ultra Wideband service by the end of 2022
Verizon will cover more than 175 million people with its 5G Ultra Wideband service by the end of 2022, according to executives. In 2021, Verizon said it expected to provide service Ultra Wideband 5G to 175 million people over the course of 2022 and 2023, so it’s hitting that target significantly faster than previously planned. They expect to cover at least 250 million people by the end of 2024. Verizon currently serves 100 million people with its C-band 3.7 GHz spectrum. Executives didn’t elaborate on the delays related to the C-band, which originally was supposed to be deployed in December but was postponed by both Verizon and AT&T due to concerns related to aviation safety. That sparked a big controversy over the holidays and wasn’t resolved until mid-January. Even with those delays and the need to accommodate incumbent satellite players in the band, which were required to move out of the lower C-band to make way for 5G, Verizon still managed to improve over its original C-band buildout targets.
Bringing rapid innovation and increased diversity and competition to mobile services is a national imperative. To accomplish this goal, the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS)—the research and engineering arm of the US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)—is encouraging the evolution of open and interoperable 5G networks through the 5G Challenge. The goal of the 5G Challenge is to accelerate the development and widespread deployment of open and interoperable 5G networks with true plug-and-play operation. In support of this effort, CableLabs was recently named the Host Lab for the US Department of Defense (DoD) and NTIA 5G Challenge. CableLabs brings an advanced mobile wireless network laboratory and expertise with open and interoperable network technologies to this collaborative initiative. The 5G Challenge will leverage CableLabs’ recent lab deployment of fully virtualized 5G networks, including multiple cores, multiple radio access networks and new network emulation equipment—as well as our growing expertise in mobile network technologies. Moreover, CableLabs is well situated to host the 5G Challenge, given our long-standing role in the industry and our work with multiple vendors to drive interoperable network technologies. The value of CableLabs’ 5G lab extends well beyond this challenge as a resource for ongoing research and development and interoperability testing in mobile network technologies.
US officials are stepping up a campaign to defeat a Russian candidate for a United Nations agency that could determine how much control governments have over the internet. Russia's designs on the little-known agency raise the stakes for what the Russian government's vision of the internet could mean for the rest of the world, especially following its invasion of Ukraine. The US is running a candidate to lead the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the telecommunications agency of the UN. If elected, Doreen Bogdan-Martin would be the first female secretary-general of the ITU, and the first US leader since the 1960s. Her competition is Russian candidate Rashid Ismailov, who previously worked for the Russian government and Huawei, as well as Nokia and Ericsson. There's a battle brewing over how much of a role the ITU and governments should have over internet standards and protocols, with China and Russia advocating for the ITU to have more control over how the internet operates. The vote will be held by secret ballot this fall at the ITU's Plenipotentiary Conference in Bucharest by the 193 member countries. Each country gets one vote.
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 Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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