Friday, April 9, 2021
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President Biden broadband agenda takes aim at Big Telecom
U.S. Actually Performed Worse During Covid Than Some Net Neutrality Countries, Not Better.
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The White House wants to lower broadband prices and make the industry more competitive — a sign that President Biden's approach to the telecom sector will be much tougher than his predecessors'. The White House infrastructure package included $100 billion for broadband deployment, with plans to channel funding to government-owned, non-profit or cooperative networks and a push to reduce prices. "A very positive signal that was sent — that should send chills up the spines of the incumbents — was recognizing that the market is not competitive and Americans generally are paying too much for broadband," said Harold Feld, senior vice president of Public Knowledge. "We've had a long run of the argument being that regulation is harmful to investment and innovation — and I think what this activity is saying is that argument has run its course," saidTom Wheeler, the former chairman of the FCC in the Obama administration. "This is a watershed where there is a recognition that investment is made based on the returns it will generate, not based on regulation."
The Biden administration’s broadband plan tracks many of the ideas contained in the $94 billion “Internet for all” infrastructure bill that congressional Democrats introduced. And that is not a good thing. Their efforts ignore the billions upon billions of dollars that the Federal Communications Commission already has in the pipeline for expanding Internet service. Democrats’ proposal has made no effort to determine how far existing funds will go or to tailor the size of their legislation to any needs that might remain. Measure never, cut checks often appears to be Washington’s new proverb. Price tag aside, the Democrats’ approach is plagued with substantive flaws that will only make it harder to close the digital divide:
- It dedicates funds to upgrade communities that already have high-speed Internet services so that they can receive the superfast “future proof” connections of tomorrow.
- It bets on government-owned networks as the future of connectivity
- It puts price controls squarely on the table
- It proposes a haphazard distribution of funds
How the FCC wasted $45 billion on rural “broadband” and what the current FCC/Congress/Administration should have learned.
Before spending an additional $100 billion of public money on rural broadband, avoiding the mistakes of the past decade would be a good place to start.
Lesson #1: The digital divide was not a consequence of rural economics; it has been the policy of the federal government. Broadband is not simply a speed at a point in time. Rather than focus on a short-term goal of attaining any particular speed, public funding is better spent on long-term infrastructure, best defined as assets with a life of at least thirty years.
Lesson # 2: Restricting funding to incumbents is a good way to protect incumbents and a bad way to do anything else. Public funding should be open to competition. More important, government policy should be designed to promote competition in high-cost areas even after networks are built. The best way to do so would be through the provision of portable consumer-based subsidies.
Lesson # 3: Proprietary tools and decisions by two or three people should not be the basis to determine how public funding will be spent across the nation. It’s time to open up the mapping, modeling and funding mechanism to the public.The country should not rely on one agency’s mapping, modeling or auction processes. We believe there should be an open, public system for broadband mapping, high-cost modeling and auction design.
[Jonathan Chambers is a partner at Conexon, a full-service fiber broadband solutions provider working exclusively with America’s rural electric cooperatives]
Internet service providers (ISPs) and their defenders are repeatedly claiming that the US did better than other network neutrality countries (specifically, the EU27) when it came to handling the crush of Covid-19 induced traffic. Unsurprisingly, they credit the lack of regulation for this amazing response. Once again, this claim does not hold up to real scrutiny. As with the investment nonsense, this is a highly complicated area and therefore subject to a lot of spin and heated arguments over what the data actually show and how to explain it. It is made even more difficult by the complete lack of any official statistics.
- Contrary to industry boosterism, everything was not awesome for networks during Covid.
- The U.S. Performed Worse Than Some Countries With Net Neutrality Laws.
- There isn’t a lot of evidence to support the “U.S. did better than the EU” claim.
AT&T estimated the number of total housing units without fixed broadband service at the Federal Communications Commission’s current 25/3 speed threshold (9.8 million) and at a 100/20 speed threshold (16.4 million) in both served and unserved census blocks. These are nationwide estimates without regard to any measure of “high-cost”
As expected, the Federal Communications Commission has asked the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to hold off on hearing a challenge to its response to the court's remand of its Restoring Internet Freedom net neutrality deregulation order, suggesting that challenge could ultimately be moot depending on how the new FCC deals with multiple petitions to reconsider that response. "Only one of the three Commissioners who voted for the Remand Order remains on the Commission, while two of the remaining Commissioners dissented, and one of those dissenters has since become the Acting Chairwoman of the Commission," the FCC told the court, which has principal jurisdiction over challenges to FCC decisions. "In view of these circumstances, placing this case in abeyance to allow time for the newly constituted Commission to consider the petitions for agency reconsideration would be appropriate." And the FCC went further, suggesting how that reconsideration might affect the legal case: "If the Commission were to grant the petitions for reconsideration in whole or in part, the agency’s action could significantly alter or render moot the issues raised by the petition for review in this case."
Broadband carriers are urging a federal appellate court to prevent California from enforcing its net neutrality law, which was passed after the Federal Communications Commission repealed nationwide broadband regulations. In a filing with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, lobbying groups for the cable and telecom industry argue that broadband is an interstate service, and therefore not subject to regulation by individual states. “This case is about whether California -- and, therefore, each of the 50 states -- can impose its own preferred (and potentially incongruous) rules on an interstate communications service that Congress and the FCC have consistently determined must be subject to a single, uniform set of federal rules,” said the American Cable Association, CTIA--The Wireless Association, NCTA--The Internet & Television Association and USTelecom--The Broadband Association. The organizations are asking the appellate court to reverse US District Court Judge John Mendez's refusal to issue an injunction that would have prevented California from enforcing its open internet law.
FCC Announces Additional 2.5 GHs Rural Tribal Priority Window License Applications Accepted for Filing
The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau announced that 50 additional applications received in the Rural Tribal Priority Window for 2.5 GHz band spectrum licenses have passed initial review and are accepted for filing. To date, the FCC has granted 216 licenses to enable Tribes to access this prime mid-band spectrum, and staff continues to make progress on reviewing additional applications. Successful Tribal applicants could receive licenses for exclusive use of up to 117.5 megahertz of 2.5 GHz spectrum. These licenses could support broadband and other advanced wireless services, including 5G, that can help address connectivity needs in Tribal communities.
Gov Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) signed a pair of measures moving the state one step closer to providing New Mexico with the broadband capacity to connect all New Mexicans to reliable, high-speed internet. Senate Bill 93 establishes an Office of Broadband Access and Expansion to centralize and coordinate broadband activities across state government agencies, local governmental bodies, tribal governmental organizations and internet service providers. The Office of Broadband will be responsible for developing a three-year broadband strategic and operational plan providing guiding principles and operational criteria for significant broadband deployment and expansion for New Mexico. House Bill 10 establishes the Connect New Mexico Fund and the Connect New Mexico Council, which will provide state grant funding for broadband infrastructure statewide and conduct and enact oversight and accountability requirements; the legislation also significantly increases the annual distribution for broadband infrastructure from the State Rural Universal Service Fund. The broadband office will conduct statewide meetings for the purpose of gathering recommendations and feedback on how to best move forward with existing stakeholder plans for broadband expansion for all New Mexicans. The Connect New Mexico Council will consist of 15 members who will oversee $130 million in broadband grant and infrastructure appropriations made in the 2021 session.
The New York State Assembly's approved State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2021-22 Budget includes the Assembly’s proposal to establish a new $15 million statewide Digital Inclusion Grant Program to assist local efforts to bring digital equity to individuals left out of today’s essential digital technology. New York now joins the national movement to support statewide programs that fund digital inclusion programs at the local level by providing affordable broadband access, devices and a training course with tech support to disadvantaged individuals. This statewide grant program would be administered by the State Education Department (SED). Grants would be available on an application basis to not-for-profits, schools, libraries, local governments, municipal housing authorities and other community-based organizations seeking to provide digital inclusion programs. Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), said, “The State of New York has made history. Dedicating $15 million to equitable access and use of digital tools is ground-breaking. The federal government allocated funds to subsidize home broadband access but affordably is only one barrier to digital equity. New York’s Digital Inclusion Grant Program will support the on-the-ground work necessary to help the most disadvantaged sign up for and make the most of home broadband. NDIA encourages every state to follow New York’s lead.”
Verizon said it is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to recall 2.5 million hotspot devices after an investigation found the devices’ lithium-ion batteries could overheat and pose fire and burn hazards. The Ellipsis Jetpack mobile hotspot models MHS900L, MHS900LS, and MHS900LPP were imported by Franklin Wireless Corp. and sold between April 2017 and March of 2021. The model numbers are all for the same device but vary depending on how the customer purchased the device — through a consumer prepaid or postpaid plan. The CPSC bulletin indicated Verizon had received 15 reports of the devices overheating; six of the reports involved fire damage to bedding or flooring. Verizon said that about 1.3 million of the hotspot devices are currently in use by customers.
A research note from telecom financial analysts at MoffettNathanson Research shows the firm estimates SpaceX’s total addressable US market at full deployment at between 300,000 to 800,000 households, or less than 1% of the market. It’s a particularly noteworthy number, considering that SpaceX is poised to receive nearly $900 million from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to cover some of the costs of bringing broadband to unserved rural areas. And considering that the total number of locations for which SpaceX was the winning RDOF bidder is 642,000. That suggests that if MoffettNathanson’s analysis of the SpaceX threat is correct, SpaceX might barely be able to meet its RDOF buildout requirements and would be unable to offer service to anyone else. MoffettNathanson’s estimate of SpaceX’s addressable market is based on several assumptions, which according to the researchers, are conservative.
The Starlink broadband network will probably stick with one price instead of offering different tiers of service, said SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell. SpaceX has been charging $99 a month for the Starlink beta service, plus $499 upfront for the user terminal/satellite dish, mounting tripod, and router. Even if SpaceX has just one price for most customers, it will probably offer a cheaper plan to people with low incomes. SpaceX is seeking an "Eligible Telecommunications Carrier" designation that would let it get reimbursement from the FCC's Lifeline program for offering discounts on telecom service to people with low incomes. In its application, SpaceX told the FCC that it "will provide Lifeline to qualifying low-income consumers and publicize the availability of Lifeline service in a manner reasonably designed to reach those likely to qualify for the service."
In Feb, SpaceX opened preorders for Starlink service, with limited slots in each geographic region to become available in the second half of 2021. Shotwell said SpaceX still has plenty of work to do before moving from beta to general availability.
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 Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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