Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Headlines Daily Digest
Sen J.D. Vance Is Trump’s Pick for Vice President
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Donald Trump has chosen Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) to be his running mate, wagering that the young senator will bring fresh energy to the Republican ticket and ensure that the movement Trump began nearly a decade ago can live on after him. Sen Vance is a political newcomer who entered the Senate in 2023, but he has spent that time methodically ascending the conservative firmament. Once an acerbic Trump critic—attacking Trump as “reprehensible” and calling him “cultural heroin”—he won Trump’s backing in his 2022 Senate race by wholly embracing his politics and his lies about a stolen election. The endorsement lifted him above a crowded field, and ultimately to the Senate. Vance, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley who became best known for writing the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” did not forget it. He quickly emerged as a top defender of the former president in the halls of Congress and on television, taking his cues from Trump while frequently bucking the priorities of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the chamber’s longtime Republican leader. Trump announced his choice in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, as the Republican National Convention was getting underway in Milwaukee. He said that Sen Vance was “the person best suited” to be his potential vice president. He highlighted Vance’s time in the Marine Corps and his memoir, saying he believed Sen Vance was a champion for hardworking people, particularly the workers and farmers in a number of key swing states.
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Apparently, Elon Musk has plans to around $45 million a month to a new super political-action committee backing Donald Trump's presidential run. Other backers of the group, called America PAC, include Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale, the Winklevoss twins, former U.S. ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft and her husband, Joe Craft, who is chief executive of coal producer Alliance Resource Partners. Formed in June, America PAC is focused on registering voters and persuading constituents to vote early and request mail-in ballots in swing states. The coalition assessed that the Democrats have historically had very robust “get out the vote” campaigns and took note of the amounts of money that the Biden camp has dedicated to so-called on-the-ground efforts in swing states. America PAC will try to counter that. America PAC has hired hundreds of employees for its efforts, and has been registering voters, having conversations with constituents in swing states and urging voters to request mail-in ballots. America PAC had $8.75 million in contributions for the three-month period ending on June 30. Musk had indicated that he planned to start his donations in July.
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Roughly 30 minutes after Donald Trump was shot, Elon Musk backed his bid for the White House. Musk entered uncharted territory. He broke with tradition set by the leaders of other major social media firms, none of whom have endorsed a presidential candidate. By using X as a megaphone for his politics—posting to his nearly 190 million followers—Musk also erased any air of neutrality for the platform. Musk’s full-throated support for the Republican candidates raises questions about how their opponents can expect to be treated on this site. “He can fashion the platform in his image,” said Gita Johar, a professor at Columbia Business School who studies consumer behavior. “He’s got a huge following and makes no bones on where he stands on issues and politics.” He has also turned the notion that the tech industry supports Democratic candidates on its head. For all the complaints that social media platforms have censored Trump and other Republicans in recent years, no senior executive at one of the companies has openly expressed a preference for a Democratic candidate.
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One of the big takeaways from our previous Internet Usage Report was how much the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way that people used the internet. In contrast, perhaps the biggest takeaway of this 2024's survey is how little things have changed. Although many politicians and pundits were eager to declare the pandemic over, it seems that things won’t be going back the way they were before—at least in terms of internet use. Key findings include:
- Many post-pandemic trends continue: While many people reported a jump in their internet usage during the pandemic, online activities like streaming music and podcasts, online gaming, texting, and emailing have stayed at those levels.
- Internet usage still seems to be increasing: Compared to 2023, 41.4% of respondents said that their internet usage had increased.
- VR didn’t take off: Despite companies like Meta going all-in on virtual reality (and even rebranding the entire company), the number of respondents who used the internet for VR more than once throughout the entire year dropped from 31% to 25%.
- AI is the new hotness: While large language models like ChatGPT weren’t on our radar back in 2022, 37% of respondents reported using these sorts of generative AI multiple times in 2023.
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Residential fixed broadband internet access in the United States (US) has long been distributed inequitably. These inequities remain the subject of significant focus for both researchers and policymakers alike, as taxpayers have invested hundreds of billions of dollars over the past several decades to address these broadband-related challenges. This paper evaluates the efficacy of the Connect America Fund (CAF), a key policy intervention aimed at addressing disparities in US internet access. CAF subsidizes the creation of new regulated broadband monopolies in underserved areas, aiming to provide comparable internet access, in terms of price and speed, to that available in urban regions. Oversight of CAF depends largely on data self-reported by internet service providers (ISPs). Unfortunately, the reliability of this self-reported data has always been open to question. We find that the serviceability rate—defined as the fraction of addresses ISPs actively serve out of the total queried, weighted by the number of CAF addresses in a census block group—is only 55.45%, dropping to as low as 18% in some states. Furthermore, the compliance rate—defined as the weighted fraction of addresses where ISPs actively serve and advertise download speeds above the FCC’s 10 Mbps threshold—is only 33.03%. We also observe that for a subset of census blocks, the CAF-funded addresses receive higher broadband speeds than their monopoly-served neighbors. These results indicate that while a few users have benefited from this multi-billion dollar program, it has largely failed to achieve its intended goal, leaving many targeted rural communities with inadequate or no broadband connectivity.
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On July 12, a federal court in Ohio delivered a temporary setback to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) plans to enforce new net neutrality regulations, halting their implementation until at least August 5. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati responded to legal challenges mounted by major industry associations and national providers including AT&T, Charter, Comcast, and Verizon, which swiftly contested the FCC’s April decision to reclassify broadband providers under Title II of the Communications Act. The new FCC rules, aimed at restoring net neutrality principles, were slated to take effect on July 22. These regulations prohibit broadband providers from blocking or throttling lawful internet content or creating paid prioritization schemes that could establish a tiered internet experience.
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To help millions of households navigate and evaluate low-cost internet plans, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) created a new rating system to evaluate a plan’s affordability and quality. NDIA GIG (Grading Internet for Good) reflects lessons from the Affordable Connectivity Program that contributed to the program’s success and evaluates plans on cost, transparency, speed, performance, and eligibility criteria. We’ve also updated our Honor Roll of Low-Cost Internet Plans page to reflect the current offerings from 10 internet service providers (ISPs).
- NDIA GIG assigns plans a “Good,” “Better,” or “Best” score, which incorporates considerations of cost, eligibility criteria, speed, data caps, latency, throttling, pricing transparency, and technology type, with a focus on eliminating barriers for those who qualify.
- The rating system sets a standard for ISPs and encourages them to improve affordable internet plans. It also serves as a resource for digital inclusion organizations and practitioners, digital navigators, and public interest organizations.
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A 2023 survey of about 1450 Nebraskans who reported having internet access at home found significant variation across demographic groups in home internet experiences. Among those with internet access at home, the largest differences in internet dependability and speed are reported across those who live in a town or city compared to those who live on a farm or open country. Half of respondents living in a town or city who have home internet reported their home internet as being very dependable, significantly higher than reports for those living on a farm or in open country (both with 26%).
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A partnership between Osage Broadband in Oklahoma and Tarana, a fixed wireless technology provider, will bring broadband to 2,300 square miles of underserved and indigenous communities in Osage County. This broadband/fixed wireless partnership will combine technologies to deliver high-speed broadband connections to the residents and businesses of Osage County. Osage Broadband and their partner AtLink Services will provide connectivity—via fiber, in most cases—to Tarana’s towers. From there, Tarana’s end-to-end next-generation fixed wireless access (ngFWA) system will deliver a connection to homes and businesses wirelessly. Most people in the area are currently served by no better than 25/3 Mbps connections. After the broadband/fixed wireless network upgrade, connections will feature speeds of more than 400 Mbps.
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In the fourth installment of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation’s Access America series, Jess talks to Brian Allenby, program operations and communications director for the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA). They chat about the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, Maine's digital equity intensive approach, and how the state has been promoting regional broadband plans and activity. "The Regional Tribal Broadband Partners were convened as a working group to share information at what was happening at that local level. There’s a history of municipally and community-driven broadband in Maine, and so to help try to start rolling those up beyond just an individual community, but to start helping those communities communicate with each other, maybe build a project out across a few communities or a region. Regional Tribal Broadband Partners were also critical in our broadband planning efforts, both for the digital equity plan and for the BEAD planning, because they helped convene a lot of the focus groups and do a lot of that outreach at that in-between level."
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The State of Colorado has entered the fray by providing better access to broadband for those living in multi-dwelling units (MDUs). Colorado enacted HB 24-1334 which takes an aggressive position on granting internet service providers (ISPs) access to MDUs. The law says that an MDU building owner can’t deny access to an ISP that wants to install broadband infrastructure. I call this an aggressive law because it gives a building owner 60 days to respond to a request by an ISP to build broadband infrastructure. If the landlord doesn’t respond in that time frame, the failure to respond is deemed to be authorization for the ISP to proceed. One of the most interesting aspects of the law is that a property owner cannot discriminate in rental charges or other fees for a tenant subscribing to an ISP. The Federal Communications Commission is considering a nationwide rule that would allow tenants to opt out of a broadband or cable TV fee that is included in the rent—the Colorado legislation goes a lot further.
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Brightspeed has been awarded more than $213 million in local, state, and federal grants to deploy fiber broadband networks in 12 states. In North Carolina—Brightspeed’s home state—the Department of Information Technology’s (NCDIT) Division of Broadband and Digital Equity Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) and the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) program will provide about $177 million to connect approximately 81,000 households. Brightspeed said it also was awarded $35.4 million in additional grants for deployment to 28,000 locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. These new Brightspeed awards add to the company’s commitment of more than $2 billion to provide high-speed networks to more than three million locations in 17 of the 20 states in its footprint.
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Two of the nation’s major telecommunications companies are feuding over a plan to boost service for police, firefighters and other state and local agencies—a move Verizon Communications says would amount to a $14 billion gift to rival AT&T. AT&T and its allies are asking regulators to provide more wireless frequencies to FirstNet, a cellular network launched in 2017 to connect emergency responders and other public-sector groups. AT&T holds an exclusive 25-year contract to run the network for the federal FirstNet Authority, which oversees the project. Rival telecom companies say the proposal would let AT&T’s commercial business piggyback on those airwaves free. Verizon, which vies with FirstNet for public-safety contracts, called the proposal a giveaway of spectrum valued at around $14 billion that would give its competitor a “substantial windfall.” T-Mobile US likewise urged regulators to avoid a “FirstNet takeover” of the spectrum. The carrier hasn’t made its case as forcefully as Verizon, whose chief executive traveled to Washington twice in recent weeks to lobby regulators. The next decision will fall to the Federal Communications Commission. The regulator has fielded comments about how to encourage more public-safety agencies to tap the airwaves, which are mostly used today by big-city systems such as Bay Area Rapid Transit and the New York Police Department.
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A SpaceX rocket has failed for the first time in nearly a decade, leaving the company’s internet satellites in an orbit so low that they’re doomed to fall through the atmosphere and burn up. The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on July 11night, carrying 20 Starlink satellites. Several minutes into the flight, the upper stage engine malfunctioned. SpaceX blamed a liquid oxygen leak. The company said flight controllers managed to make contact with half of the satellites and attempted to boost them to a higher orbit using onboard ion thrusters. But with the low end of their orbit only 84 miles (135 kilometers) above Earth—less than half what was intended—“our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites,” the company said via X. SpaceX said the satellites will reenter the atmosphere and burn up.
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SpaceX’s Starlink Mini satellite is now available for everyone in the United States. Starlink Mini is a compact, portable kit designed to be able to fit in a backpack, enabling the user to have high-speed, low-latency internet on the go. The service promises speeds of 5-50 Mbps, with setup possible in as little as two minutes. The standard Starlink service plan offers 150-250 Mbps. The base hardware for the Starlink Mini is available for $499. Service is available starting at $50 per month, which provides the user with 50 G of data. Starlink touts this plan as best suited to weekend travelers, backup internet, and in-motion use.
Sens Wyden, Welch, Warren Urge Biden Administration to Crack Down on Big Tech for Massive AI Consolidation
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Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) urged Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan and Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter to crack down on the massive consolidation of emerging generative artificial intelligence (AI) by tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Massive consolidation stifles innovation or eliminates potential competitors, limits consumers’ ability to choose a variety of products, and puts America’s national security at risk. “Through partnerships, equity deals, acquisitions, cloud computing credits, and other arrangements, the largest technology companies are entrenching themselves as the dominant firms in the nascent generative AI industry,” the senators wrote. “We’re pleased that the FTC and DOJ have already begun to investigate threats to competition in parts of the generative AI ecosystem. But it has become clear that sustained, pointed action is necessary to fight undue consolidation across the industry. This is particularly true for deals that could lessen competition but are structured in ways that could skirt regulatory scrutiny.”
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.
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