As some states ease stay-at-home restrictions, mobile handoffs (the times when a data session moves from one cell site to another as users walk or drive around) are starting to return to near pre-COVID levels in some regions, according to the latest Verizon Network Report. The Carolinas and Tennessee region are 1% below a typical day while the Georgia and Alabama region is down only 5% and the Central Gulf Coast region is down only 9% below a typical day. By contrast, many of the hardest-hit areas are still seeing major declines in handoffs compared to a typical day including the Upstate NY region (-58%), New England (-50%), and New York Metro (-47%).In addition, the Verizon Network Report shows that most categories of usage are starting to decline, with some falling significantly below peak levels. In particular downloads decreased 5% week over week, and have fallen 55% since the COVID peak, while gaming is down 10% week over week and down 45% since its peak. Customers have placed 14% fewer wireless calls from the peak of COVID calling and wireless calls are now 3% shorter in duration.

INCOMPAS, the internet and competitive networks association, is urging the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a stronger approach to encouraging competition across all markets. Filing comments in response to the FCC’s second “Communications Marketplace Report” proceeding, INCOMPAS warns that competition is significantly lacking in the broadband wired services heavily relied on by families and small businesses who need faster, more affordable options. The INCOMPAS filing underscores the need for accurate maps and data, details antitrust threats in the video and streaming marketplace, and offers a strong warning against efforts to end the bipartisan competition laws that enable the Bridge 2 Broadband for new fiber builders and 5G deployments.
 

The Federal Communications Commission approved an additional 13 funding applications for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program. Health care providers in both urban and rural areas of the country will use this $4.2 million in funding to provide telehealth services during the coronavirus pandemic. To date, the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program has funded 30 health care providers in 16 states for a total of $13.7 million in funding.

1. Augusta University Medical Center, in Augusta, Georgia, was awarded $113,744 to expand its ultraportable ultrasound program to differentiate and screen COVID-19 patients for different types of respiratory diseases prior to hospital admittance.
2. Children’s Hospital Colorado, in Aurora, Colorado, with 14 locations throughout the state, was awarded $807,090 to implement telehealth services to provide continuity of medical care for children, adolescents, and young adults with complex pediatric illnesses in the Rocky Mountain region.
3. Country Doctor Community Health Centers, in Seattle, Washington, was awarded $392,770 to serve its low income, high-risk, and vulnerable patient population by building its telehealth capacity and online screening functionality to triage COVID-19 patients remotely, while also leveraging telehealth to treat patients with chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, pulmonary disorders, and substance abuse disorders.
4. Greene County General Hospital, in Linton, Indiana, was awarded $60,480 to expand its mobile telehealth capacity to ensure continued care to its patients, including its senior patient population, that have been displaced by the emergency COVID-19 response within its current facilities.
5. The Institute for Family Health, in New Paltz, New York, one of the largest Federally Qualified Health Center networks in New York State, with locations in medically underserved communities in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, was awarded $729,118 for 16 of its community health centers, including group homes for the developmentally disabled, to provide telehealth visits for primary medical and preventive care, mental health care, and care management services for patients of all ages.
6. Lancaster Health Center, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was awarded $75,710 to expand telehealth capacity to screen and treat COVID-19 patients, and manage care for patients at risk of severe complications if exposed to COVID-19, including care for its migrant patient population with high poverty rates and older patients with pre-existing conditions.
7. Loudoun Community Health Center T/A HealthWorks for Northern Virginia, in Leesburg, Virginia, was awarded $93,380 to expand its video telehealth services to identify COVID-19 patients remotely and provide remote patient care.
8. Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, was awarded $1,000,000 to implement video telehealth services and remote patient monitoring across its Midwest presence of over 50 communities in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, to minimize exposure and slow further spread of the COVID-19 virus while maintaining patient care and monitoring standards.
9. McLaren Health Care Corporation, in Grand Blanc, Michigan, was awarded $626,328 for 12 health care provider sites to enhance telehealth connectivity across Michigan, in order to provide safe high-quality care to patients, including high risk and vulnerable patients at the Karmanos Cancer Center, and to decrease the exposure to all health care providers using multiple telehealth platforms and devices.
10. New York Psychotherapy and Counseling Center, in Jamaica, New York, with two sites in the Bronx and Brooklyn, was awarded $126,799 to implement telehealth to serve low-income and at-risk patients struggling with mental health issues, in order to reduce 911 calls and emergency room visits, and expedite post-hospital discharge to free up space in New York City’s hospital system.
11. Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation, in New Hyde Park, New York, was awarded $97,965 for telehealth services and connected devices, including remote monitoring devices, to care for the elderly and chronically ill in its 527-bed skilled nursing facility and rehabilitation center specializing in the care of older adults.
12. Service Program for Older People, Inc., in New York, New York, was awarded $26,180 to implement telehealth services to provide comprehensive mental health services to adults age 55 and older, who are at a high risk for COVID-19 due to age, medical frailty, and isolation, and in order to avert unnecessary emergency room visits.
13. Valley-Wide Health Systems, Inc., in Alamosa, Colorado, was awarded $46,437 to implement video telehealth services to provide virtual health visits for COVID-19 screening and primary medical care to its vulnerable low-income and elderly patients.

The connectivity and services built by information capitalists have become too important to be left any longer without public participation in determining the rules they follow. Critical nature of these digital services warrants public interest representation in decisions about their practices. Here are four ideas to incorporate public participation in establishing the rules for the critical services of the information era:

1. Do not pretend these challenges can be shoehorned into industrial era regulatory structures.
2. Digital companies should have a seat at the table in the development of the rules rather than having them force-fed. There should be a new federal agency that convenes, oversees, and approves a public-private process that establishes an agency-enforceable Digital Code.
3.  This new Digital Code is not a substitute for antitrust enforcement.
4. The regulatory oversight needs to be principles-based and agile

[Tom Wheeler was Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission from 2013 to 2017.]