Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Headlines Daily Digest
Today's Agenda: Precision Agriculture; USF; and Digital Equity
Don't Miss:
The Connection Between Affordability and Internet Adoption in Oregon
Ensuring Access to Quality Communications for Incarcerated People
Large Canada Phone Firms Must Open Fiber-Optic Networks to Smaller Rivals
State/Local Initiatives
Digital Equity
Customer Service
Wireless
Journalism
Health
Elections & Media
Platforms
AI
Labor
Devices
TV
Company News
Stories From Abroad
Although broadband is widely available in Oregon, it is not universally available. Oregon and the Oregon Broadband Office (OBO) have been laying the groundwork for the delivery of affordable, reliable broadband internet to every household in Oregon. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program—established by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—is providing the state with more than $688 million to close the digital divide. Among Oregon households that do not subscribe to internet service of any kind, an estimated 16 percent report that a primary reason they do not pay for broadband internet access service at home is an inability to afford service. Oregon’s goal is to remove affordability as a barrier to participation in the digital economy or digital experience. The strategies to achieve this goal include:
- Maximizing, to the extent possible, eligible residents’ participation in the ACP as well as the federal and Oregon Lifeline programs by working with cities, counties, tribes, ISPs, non-profits, and other entities to support outreach and enrollment programs.
- Making affordability an important scoring criterion of all state broadband grant programs.
- Working with ISPs to encourage them to create strategies since the ACP has now ended so that there will be robust and adequate low-cost plans offered at reasonable prices by ISPs to low-income households.
- Giving additional points in grant program scoring to entities that make a commitment to offer adequate and reasonable low-cost plans for low-income households statewide, not only on publicly-funded infrastructure.
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved New York’s Initial Proposals for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Internet for All” initiative. This approval enables New York to request access to funding and begin implementation of the BEAD program—a major step towards closing the digital divide and meeting the President’s goal of connecting everyone in America with affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service. New York was allocated over $664 million to deploy or upgrade high-speed Internet networks to ensure that everyone has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service.
CPUC Recommends Fifth Round of Grant Awards for Last Mile Broadband Infrastructure Projects Across California
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) announced the fifth round of recommended awardees for last mile broadband projects as part of the $2 billion Last Mile Federal Funding Account Grant Program. This program expands broadband internet access for underserved and unserved communities across California. This announcement continues a rolling process of awards and recommendations, highlighting the state’s commitment to bridging the digital divide through Broadband For All. This fifth Draft Resolution recommends awarding approximately $91 million for Last Mile Federal Funding Account in Marin, Mendocino, San Benito, Santa Cruz, and Sutter counties benefitting an estimated 32,000 Californians. The recommendations include grants to City of Ukiah, City of Fort Bragg, Round Valley Indian Tribe, Comcast, Marin County, Surfnet, and Hankins Information Technology.
Using our devices comes naturally for those who grew up with technology, or who have had the opportunity to adapt to it over the years. But for those new to it, navigating the digital world can be a confusing muddle. As broadband access and broadband coverage is more available throughout North Carolina, the digital knowledge gap becomes increasingly evident. What seem like basic everyday tasks in a connected age can be foreign concepts for people who are new to the technology. Kenny Sherin, NC State Extension’s Community and Economic Development program manager, has been involved in digital skills outreach efforts for about three and a half years. In 2023, NC State Extension received a grant from the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) that enabled him to hire new full-time digital skills agents and train existing agents to add digital skills education to their duties. Some of the agents are helping implement cutting-edge technologies, including working with farmers to beta-test innovations related to cover crops, precision pest ecology, sensor development and disease diagnostics. But the biggest application is education to help those who are unfamiliar with technology and connectivity thrive in today’s world.
The Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) awarded two grants totaling $9,600,633 to connect 15,561 homes and businesses across Waldo and Lincoln Counties to expand access to the internet. The grants were made through MCA’s Partnerships for Enabling Middle Mile (PEMM) Program which addresses large-scale, regional broadband needs by leveraging middle-mile infrastructure. These two grants demonstrate 12 collective years of concerted community-driven broadband planning, regional collaboration, and highlight the value of public-private, regional-scale partnerships. Partnerships for Enabling Middle Mile is part of MCA's All-In Programs, and is funded by ARPA Capital Projects Fund from the U.S. Department of Treasury. MCA’s complementary programs are designed to reach the last mile in the most rural places, connect communities ready to scale their infrastructure, ensure affordable options for everyone, and invest in partnerships to build a modern broadband infrastructure for Maine.
Ensuring Access to Quality Communications for Incarcerated People: Options for Advocates and State Legislators
This report offers options for advocates to make sure that incarcerated people and their families receive good quality communications whether they pay for communications or not. Recommended measures represent a holistic strategy to dismantle the barriers of silence and distance. The proposed legal frameworks and standards are designed as enforceable rights to guarantee that communication—a lifeline for those incarcerated—remains unbroken and clear. With this report, UCC Media Justice lays down a legislative blueprint that, if followed, promises to uphold the dignity of incarcerated individuals and their families by ensuring their voices are heard and connections maintained and ultimately aiding in their successful reentry into society.
Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared with her fellow commissioners a Notice of Inquiry that, if adopted, would seek information on ways to ensure that consumers have appropriate and efficient access to customer service resources when working with their phone, cable and broadband providers. Consumers should have access to customer service resources that are helpful and efficient, so that they can easily resolve issues and make informed choices when it comes to their telecommunications service providers. The Notice of Inquiry would seek comment on a number of related topics including, but not limited to:
- Simple cancellation;
- Access to live representatives;
- Establishing uniform requirements regarding installations, outages, and service calls;
- Automatic renewal of service or price increases;
- Special considerations for people with disabilities, and more.
Substack is on track to more than double its politics and news subscribers in 2024, executives told Axios. The number of Substack journalists in news and politics making more than $1 million has doubled over the past year—and is now in "double digits," the company says. A boom in digital publishing tech combined with a slew of media cutbacks prompted a big wave of journalists to go independent during the pandemic. But the trend slowed following a huge turnaround for media businesses in 2021, pegged to an unprecedented comeback in the ad market. Today, industry instability, combined with product improvements at independent publishing platforms like Substack, has made independent ventures viable for a wider array of journalists.
Donald Trump's false charge that his opponent used artificial intelligence to forge a photo of a crowd of supporters shows yet another dimension of AI's potential to harm democracy. AI's greatest danger, many experts in the field argue, isn't that it can be used to manufacture falsehoods—but that its very existence makes it so easy to undermine the truth. Trump posted a message on Truth Social Sunday claiming that photos showing Vice President Kamala Harris meeting a large crowd of supporters on a Detroit runway were doctored. In reality, many people have affirmed they were there and saw the crowds. Many of those people took their own photos. Warnings about the danger of deepfakes have helped arm the public against an expected flood of fakery. But they've also unavoidably made it possible to question the trustworthiness of any evidence you don't like. The next time a recording surfaces of some private event where a politician said something damaging, it will be that much easier to deny it.
The Harris campaign has been editing news headlines and descriptions within Google search ads that make it appear as if the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News and other major publishers are on her side. It's a common practice in the commercial advertising world that doesn't violate Google's policies, but the ads mimic real news results from Search closely enough that they have news outlets caught off guard. The campaign buys search ads with news links to give voters searching for information about Vice President Harris more context. The campaign has complied with all of Google's rules, although a technical glitch in Google's Ad Library made it appear as though some ads lacked the necessary disclosures Google requires when they ran. (A Google spokesperson confirmed the glitch and said it's investigating what happened.)
Brightspeed, the company that bought Lumen Technologies’ copper assets in 20 markets, has won $3.7 billion in new financing to spend toward its fiber buildouts. The financing comes from a syndicate of bankers and other investors led by Brightspeed’s parent company Apollo Global Management. Apollo paid $7.5 billion for Brightspeed in 2022. Brightspeed CEO Tom Maguire said, “The same people who funded the original go-around are back again. I take that as a good sign. They still believe in what we’re doing.” Of the new Brightspeed funding, Jonathan Spalter, CEO of USTelecom Association, said, "I think the underlying theme is it’s a real affirmation not only for Brightspeed and its build plan but also the overall positive climate for broadband as a lot of folks in the financial community really see a pathway for growth and success."
Starting February 2025, Canada’s largest telephone companies, led by BCE and Telus, must provide smaller rivals with wholesale access to their fiber-optic networks in a bid to foster affordable access to high-quality internet services. The order from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, in essence, makes permanent a temporary order issued in November 2023. At the time, BCE responded with plans to curtail planned capital expenditures for the current fiscal year. This ruling would apply across the country, thereby affecting Telus, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and leans on western Canada for sales. The previous ruling applied to only the big central Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. In its ruling, the commission said this would allow competitors to the big phone companies “to bring innovative new Internet service plans to market … Increased competition creates more choice and lower prices.” The commission added the phone companies’ significant market share “gives them the ability to exercise market power in a way that could be harmful” to maintaining affordable and competitive telecommunications services, as dictated by the country’s Telecommunications Act.
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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