Thursday, April 25, 2024
Headlines Daily Digest
The FCC Open Meeting is today, and more events
Don't Miss:
Congress Passed a Bill That Could Ban TikTok
An unexpected digital divide? A look at internet speeds and socioeconomic groups
Digital Equity
Broadband Infrastructure
Net Neutrality
State/Local Initiatives
Wireless
Social Media
Platforms
Artificial Intelligence
Policymakers
Company/Industry News
Digital Equity
As societies and economies continue to digitize, the need to understand the digital divide beyond binary availability or adoption metrics is increasing. Understanding the quality and performance of home internet—measured by internet speeds—among different socioeconomic groups contributes to the complex digital equity landscape at a time when all U.S. states and territories are completing digital equity plans. Using 2021 speed test data from Ookla, this study conducts spatial regressions at the census tract level to find that most of the sociodemographic factors associated with lower home internet adoption rates (e.g., rural, poor, older) remain when looking at actual internet speeds. However, an unexpected finding—supported by emerging research—that White non-Hispanic residents are using the internet at slower speeds compared to the two largest minority groups of Blacks and Hispanics suggests a need to potentially reassess the design of digital equity programs and policy interventions.
Broadband Infrastructure
Biden-Harris Administration Partners with Local Organizations, Cooperatives and Tribes to Support High-Speed Internet Deployment in Rural Communities as Part of Investing in America Agenda
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is partnering with rural cooperatives, local organizations and Tribes to support high-speed internet deployment in 11 states. USDA is awarding $5.2 million in cooperative agreements through the Broadband Technical Assistance Program, which is funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This funding will extend the reach of other high-speed internet programs to meet the Administration’s goal to connect every community in America with affordable, reliable, high-speed internet. The Broadband Technical Assistance Program provides funding to cooperatives and organizations interested in receiving or delivering broadband technical assistance and training. This program promotes the expansion of high-speed internet into rural and Tribal communities by funding feasibility studies, network designs, hiring efforts, application development assistance and more. The funding will help people living in Alaska, Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia. Examples of projects in this announcement include:
- In the Southwest, Ciomperlik Enterprises LLC is receiving a $126,570 award to prepare reports, feasibility studies, financial forecasts, market surveys, environmental studies and technical design to expand high-speed internet access in 10 communities across Duval, Frio, Jim Hogg, La Salle and Zavala counties in Texas.
- In the Midwest, the Curators of the University of Missouri is receiving a $191,038 award to support community planning, a broadband economic analysis study, an environmental study and a technical design study in Carter and Shannon counties in Missouri.
- In the Pacific Northwest, the Connecting Alaska Consortium is receiving a $1 million award to deliver technical assistance and training to support planning and engagement, coordinating partnerships, grant-related training, and data collection and reporting. Funding will also support technical assistance and training conferences. The project will be used to promote and expand high-speed internet access in 122 rural and Tribal communities across Alaska.
- In the South, the South Central Alabama Broadband Cooperative District is receiving a $820,000 award to perform community needs assessments and project planning, provide grant assistance, support construction planning and engineering and provide federal resource management and oversight in 45 communities across 15 counties in South Central Alabama.
A full list of projects from today’s announcement is available online.
One of the trends that is a concern for internet service providers (ISPs) is plans by State Broadband Offices to force Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) winners to charge low rates for broadband. One argument for lowering rates is that the government is paying a big portion of the cost of building the broadband networks, and it ought to be able to extract concessions from the ISPs for taking the grant funding. In most places, BEAD will be used for the most sparsely populated places, which in many instances also have the toughest topography and construction challenges. The other argument I’ve often heard is that ISPs can provide lower rates because ISPs make a lot of money and can afford it. This might be true for the large national ISPs that can average the revenues from BEAD areas across larger markets with higher margins. But rural ISPs can’t be shouldered with providing the low rates so that folks can afford broadband. ISPs can’t be forced to somehow fund the end of the Affordable Connectivity Program – particularly in rural areas. Anybody who has ever operated any business knows that operating with too-low rates is a road to eventual financial disaster.
Millions of people have called on the Federal Communications Commission to protect the free and open internet — backed by the authority of Title II of the Communications Act — registering more public comments on this issue than any other in the agency’s history. Now, under the leadership of FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel — who had to wait two years to act until the Senate filled a vacant seat on the commission — net neutrality, gutted under the Trump administration, is back on the docket. A new vote to restore it is set for April 25 at the FCC. Without Title II authority, the FCC can’t protect user privacy, promote broadband competition, eliminate hidden junk fees and other scams, or step in when monopoly-minded internet service providers do you wrong. During the height of the pandemic, for example, the FCC was left begging companies not to cut off service because the agency lacked the legal mandate to make demands of AT&T, Charter, Comcast and Verizon. The draft order released in April 2024 by Rosenworcel and her staff would fix these problems and restore the agency’s rightful authority over internet access services. In the remaining days before a final vote, we’re likely to see an upsurge in industry fueled misinformation and long-debunked claims. The truth is that net neutrality is so necessary because it’s how the internet has always worked — and it’s what makes possible an internet where people can make their own choices, not just pick from a fixed menu dictated and filtered by a few giant gatekeepers.
[Craig Aaron is the co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action, which aim to give people a say in policy decisions that shape media and technology.]
Chair Rodgers, Ranking Member Cruz Lead Colleagues in Urging FCC to Halt Unlawful Plan to Reclassify Broadband as a Public Utility
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-TX) led a bicameral coalition of their committee colleagues in calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reverse course and abandon its so-called “net neutrality” draft order—an illegal power grab that would expose the broadband industry to an oppressive regulatory regime under Title II of the Communications Act. The members argue that the FCC’s draft order ignores the text of the Communications Act of 1934, which explicitly precludes the FCC from treating broadband as a public utility. Moreover, the Supreme Court’s recent jurisprudence on the major questions doctrine confirms that the only body that can authorize public utility regulation of broadband is Congress. Resurrecting this policy, which will inevitably be struck down by the courts, is a waste of time and resources and will punish American consumers by choking off investment, innovation, and competition.
State/Local Initiatives
Higher internet costs could be on the way for low-income Pennsylvania residents as federal subsidies run out
Thousands of Pennsylvanians could soon be hit with higher internet bills when the Affordable Connectivity Program starts to run out of money next month. Unless Congress approves more funding, April 2024 will be the last time many residents receive the benefit in full. The looming end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) comes as Pennsylvania starts to spend an unprecedented surge of federal investment intended to bring high-speed internet access to every U.S. resident. The state Broadband Development Authority ha approved more than $200 million in grants to internet service providers. And that’s just the beginning: Pennsylvania will receive another $1.1 billion in federal broadband funding within the next two years. But the end of the ACP could hamper the commonwealth’s efforts to ensure that residents can afford the service offered by these new networks. “If we want to achieve a world where everyone has internet service, we need a program like the ACP,” said Drew Garner, director of policy engagement at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. “Affordability is the main thing keeping people offline, and that’s especially true in rural areas where a lot of this infrastructure money is targeted.”
A bill that would force a sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner, ByteDance—or ban it outright—was passed by the Senate on April 23 and signed into law April 24 by President Joe Biden. Now the process is likely to get even more complicated. Congress passed the measure citing national security concerns because of TikTok’s Chinese ties. Both lawmakers and security experts have said there are risks that the Chinese government could lean on ByteDance for access to sensitive data belonging to its 170 million U.S. users or to spread propaganda. The law would allow TikTok to continue to operate in the United States if ByteDance sold it within 270 days, or about nine months, a time frame that the president could extend to a year. The measure is likely to face legal challenges, as well as possible resistance from Beijing, which could block the sale or export of the technology. It’s also unclear who has the resources to buy TikTok, since it will carry a hefty price tag. The issue could take months or even years to settle, during which the app would probably continue to function for U.S. consumers.
Platforms
Weaponizing Terms of Service: How Online Service Providers Use Broad Policies to Silence Conservatives
A report on how online service providers are weaponizing their terms of service to deny conservative organizations access to essential business technology. The report concludes with the following recommendations:
- Legislation requiring Online Service Providers to publish the standards, including detailed definitions of all key terms and phrases, they may employ to deny or cancel services.
- Legislation requiring Online Service Providers to provide written notice to a user when refusing to provide a service or cancelling a service based on the user’s violation of the terms of service. This written notice must specifically identify the users’ actions that violated the terms of service. The Online Service Providers must also request the user’s permission to post the refusal or cancellation on its public website and do so if the user gives that permission.
- Legislation requiring Online Service Providers to publish an annual report on their public websites outlining actions taken to enforce their terms of service. This report must include the number of instances that the Online Service Provider denied or cancelled service based on the terms of service, and, for each instance, the specific provision that was violated, as well as the source for the alert of the violation.
AT&T reported first-quarter results that highlighted consistent 5G and fiber customer additions and showcased profitable growth driven by increased Mobility service and broadband revenues. Revenues for the first quarter totaled $30.0 billion versus $30.1 billion in the year-ago quarter, down 0.4%. Mobility revenues were up 0.1% year over year, driven by service revenue growth of 3.3% from subscriber and postpaid ARPU growth, offset by lower equipment revenues due to lower sales volumes. Consumer wireline revenues were up 3.4% year over year, driven by growth in broadband revenues attributable to fiber revenues, which grew 19.5%, partially offset by declines in legacy voice and data services and other services.
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), Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org), and Zoe Walker (zwalker AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2024. 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
1041 Ridge Rd, Unit 214
Wilmette, IL 60091
847-220-4531
headlines AT benton DOT org
Share this edition:
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society All Rights Reserved © 2024