Daily Digest 3/8/2018 (What's Happening to the E-rate?)

[Commentary] Two-hundred forty-five days. School districts are waiting this long for the Federal Communications Commission to make decisions on the fate of funding to bring fiber connectivity to their classrooms. That’s 65 days longer than the average school year. And for Woodman School in rural Montana, it means another school year that students must be bused to a neighboring district for assessments because high-speed internet access is not an option. No school should have to wait that long to provide basic educational opportunity for its students. In January, education organizations recognized the 20th anniversary of E-rate—the FCC program that has connected 39 million students to the broadband they need for the jobs of tomorrow. We’ve come a long way, but we also need to address the emerging red tape that is stalling our students’ learning progress. Unless there is a focused commitment to make sure schools can proceed with planned fiber projects, nearly 750,000 students — mostly in rural areas — will be left on the wrong side of a digital divide, disconnected from the same learning opportunities as students in other regions. These learning opportunities were once luxuries in classrooms, but they are now vital for college and career readiness. Already, 50 percent of jobs require some digital skills. By the end of the decade, 77 percent will require technological skills. Our students will not be ready for what tomorrow brings if we don’t equip their schools with the broadband infrastructure they need. We made it a priority to strengthen the E-rate program six years ago. The program was modernized for the broadband needs of today. And now, we need USAC to finish the job.

[Evan Marwell is the founder and CEO of EducationSuperHighway]

A simple policy that could speed up fiber Internet deployment throughout the US is finally on track to become US law. A "Dig Once" measure that requires fiber conduit installation during many federally funded road projects was passed by the US House of Representatives via voice vote as part of a broader reauthorization of the Federal Communications Commission. Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA) first submitted Dig Once legislation in 2009 and has periodically resubmitted the legislation in the years since. The Dig Once policy "mandates the inclusion of broadband conduit—plastic pipes which house fiber-optic communications cable—during the construction of any road receiving federal funding," Rep Eshoo said. "This will reduce costs drastically and increase access for communities across the country," making it "easier for states and broadband providers to enter new and underserved markets." Conduit would be installed during road projects in cases "where there's a demonstrated need for broadband access," she said.

[Press release] Members of the House Subcommittees on a) Health and Technology and b) Agriculture, Energy, and Trade held a joint hearing on the challenges in the current regulatory and operational environment that limit the ability of small carriers to bridge the rural digital divide. The hearing examined the disparities between large, nationwide carriers and small, rural carriers that contribute to the urban/rural digital divide and the challenges inherent in the current regulatory and operational schemes that limit the ability of small carriers to deploy broadband in rural America. Derrick B. Owens of WTA (formerly the Western Telecommunications Alliance) was one of the witnesses at the hearing, discussing the Universal Service Fund, rural broadband infrastructure, and regulatory and reporting requirements. He said the USF High Cost program supports rural broadband networks and needs to be sufficiently funded, suggesting at the very least, an inflationary adjustment to the High Cost program is warranted so that current problems regarding the sufficiency and predictability of support are not exacerbated. He also suggested Congress directly allocate a portion of President Trump’s $50 billion infrastructure plan specifically for rural broadband infrastructure purposes. Other witnesses were: Erin Fitizgerald of the Rural Wireless Association; Tim Donovan of the Competitive Carriers Association; and Paul Carliner of Bloosurf.

This updated analysis revisits the pioneering research approach first developed in 2010, which highlights countries that are leading on a global basis in their deployment and use of broadband applications and content; devices; and networks. In 2018, these top-tier countries are China, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada (listed by population size). Based on indices developed by the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and respected quantitative research organizations around the world, this study presents a unique Net Vitality Index as a composite metric for evaluation. The Index takes into account 38 factors, developed independently, to evaluate countries on an apples-to-apples basis, including a number of measures related to innovation that are critical to broadband Internet ecosystem development.

In a move likely in response to the Justice Department, Sinclair has once again amended its June 2017 deal to purchase Tribune Media's stations, this time adjusting last week's amended filing to cut Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York (PA) from the markets where it sought to own two of the top four stations to take advantage of the Federal Communications Commission's new case-by-case waiver of the prohibition on such ownership. Sinclair will now sell one of the two stations in that market rather than try for an exemption. Sinclair declined comment on what had changed, but Harrisburg had been moved out of the section on markets were Sinclair is seeking to own two of the top four stations to the bucket for "Overlap Markets where Sinclair is divesting stations to comply with the Duopoly Rule." It is a fairly safe bet that deciding to sell one of the Harrisburg stations instead of trying to hold onto both was at the behest of the Justice Department, whose antitrust review looks at share of ad revenue in a market. That may have been the holdup in the DOJ review of the deal, a decision on which had been expected by now. Sinclair is still seeking FCC permission to own two of the top four in only Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem (NC) and Indianapolis (IN), but reducing the number of such reviews from three to two could speed the FCC's review, which goes beyond antitrust and ad share to public-interest benefits.

Rep David Cicilline (D-RI) plans to introduce a bill that would exempt publishers from antitrust enforcement so they can negotiate collectively over terms for distributing their content. Rep Cicilline says the bill is designed to level the playing field between publishers and the tech giants, not dictate the outcome. Without an exemption, collective action by publishers could run afoul of antitrust laws around colluding over price or refusal to deal with competitors. The prime driver of the bill is the News Media Alliance, a trade association formerly known as the Newspaper Association of America, which represents more than 2,000 newspapers in the US and Canada; the group has been lobbying for such an exemption for a year. Rep Chavern says the alliance is seeking changes in five areas: platforms should share data about the publishers’ readers; better highlight trusted brands; support subscriptions for publishers; and potentially share more ad revenue and consider paying for some content.

YouTube hosts 4 million videos related to Syria that have been uploaded since the outbreak of the war in 2011, according to Keith Hiatt, vice president of the human rights program at Benetech, a technology nonprofit. But YouTube wasn’t designed to be the world’s largest repository of war footage. Over the summer of 2017, YouTube introduced a machine-learning-based algorithm to flag videos for terms of service (ToS)-related violations. The algorithm’s purpose was to expedite the removal of propaganda videos that extremist groups like ISIS had posted—but it flagged a large volume of activist content for removal, too. Within a few days, some 900 Syria-related channels disappeared off the platform.

[Op-ed] In the course of its deliberations on the future of Internet openness, the Federal Communications Commission logged about half a million comments sent from Russian e-mail addresses. It received nearly 8 million comments from e-mail domains associated with FakeMailGenerator.com with almost identical wording. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated case. Researchers, journalists, and public servants have found a wide range of fake comments and stolen identities in the public proceedings of the Labor Department, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Securities and Exchange Commission. In proceedings at the FCC and elsewhere, it is apparent that the public is increasingly shut out of decision-making by the fraud that is flooding public channels for comment. We need a lot more investigating, including from the Justice Department and the FBI. The sheer volume of fraud suggests a systemic effort to corrupt the process by which the public participates in some of the biggest decisions made in Washington. That deserves attention — and a fix. If we do this right, we can do more than rid our public records of comments from dead people and Russia, stolen identities and bots. We can find a way to give all Americans — no matter who they are or where they live — a fighting chance at making Washington listen to what they think.

[Jessica Rosenworcel is a member of the Federal Communications Commission]