Friday, September 4, 2020
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On Feb 14, 2020, various Members of Congress wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai expressing concern that the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Order may inadvertently undermine the ability of states to help close the digital divide due to the rushed process undertaken by the FCC's adoption of the Order.
On Aug 26, Chairman Pai responded by saying the current pandemic has highlighted the impact of the digital divide more starkly than ever, and that is why it is unjust to willfully leave those 10.4 million rural Americans who we know are unserved on the wrong side of the digital divide while we try to locate every single American that lacks broadband. "Waiting is simply not an option for the unserved." Regarding state efforts, Chairman Pai said the basic principle the FCC followed is, "If a service provider already has been given funding (federal and/or state) and is obligated (by federal and/or state law) to serve a specific area with at least 25/3 Mbps broadband, the FCC is not going to give yet more taxpayer funding to deploy a network in that area. That would be an irresponsible use of limited taxpayer dollars, because we would end up either paying a second provider to deploy broadband in an area where a [sic] the federal or state government had already funded a different provider or giving a second-bite windfall to corporations that should not be paid for the same work twice." He went on to write, "[I]f a service provider has state-based funding and a commitment to deploy 25/3 Mbps or better service in one area, it cannot receive FCC funding to deliver similar service to that same area. But it would still be eligible to participate in the [RDOF] in other areas in the state that are unserved and not covered bya funding commitment." He also noted that in total, fewer than 1% of the census blocks initially deemed eligible for the RDOF Phase I auction were removed due to state broadband funding programs.
Chairman Pai's Response to Members of Congress Regarding Telecommunications Connectivity in Puerto Rico During the COVID-19 Pandemic
On May 26, 2020, Reps Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Raul Ruiz (D-CA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Darren Soto (D-FL) wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to request the FCC to provide an update on the status of communications networks in Puerto Rico and determine whether its residents have maintained reliable connectivity throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The Reps wrote they were deeply concerned about the potential for continued communications disruptions, in light of recent earthquakes and the lingering impact of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.
On Aug 25, Chairman Pai responded by saying the FCC has not received reports of widespread and lengthy outages, in contrast to the breakdown during and immediately after the 2017 Hurricane Season. "The rapid recovery after the January 2020 earthquakes was due in no small part to the extraordinary restoration efforts of the island's telecommunications carriers," which developed more resilient networks as well as a recovery strategy that took lessons learned from Hurricane Maria. He described various efforts the FC has taken to address the matter.
Families in suburban Cook County public housing to get free internet in Comcast program funded by federal CARES Act dollars
All families with school-age children in suburban Cook County in Chicago public housing buildings will be eligible for free broadband internet under a program funded through federal coronavirus stimulus money. The Housing Authority of Cook County (HACC) joined Comcast under the company’s Internet Essentials Partnership Program to begin delivering internet to nearly 14,000 children in more than 6,500 households, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said. Every student who lives in the public housing complexes or has a voucher qualifies for the program, which will run for at least nine months. About 600 families are currently signed on to the service, HACC Executive Director Richard Monocchio said. The county is paying for the $9.95-per-month bundle for these families with about $600,000 in federal CARES Act money.
The Federal Communications Commission’s first-ever spectrum priority filing window for rural Tribes closed Sept 2, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. EDT. This 2.5 GHz Rural Tribal Priority Window presented a unique opportunity for eligible Tribal entities to obtain overlay licenses for prime mid-band spectrum covering rural Tribal lands to help address their connectivity needs and close the digital divide in Indian country. The window opened on Feb 3, 2020, and the FCC received more than 400 applications from Tribal entities throughout the country.
On Aug 18 and 19, 2020, several Members of Congress wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman AJit Pai requesting the FCC immediately extend the 2.5 GHz Rural Tribal Priority Window deadline by no less than 180 says "as Tribal nations continue to respond to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) public health crisis." On July 31, the FCC published an order granting an extremely limited 30-day extension of the application deadline, "which is 150 days fewer than prior requests from members of Congress and the U.S. Department of Interior's Assistant Secretary." "Denying an extension for native communities to claim spectrum over their lands during this unprecedented pandemic is unconscionable."
On Aug 24 and 28, Chairman Pai responded by saying that the 30-day extension struck an appropriate balance between providing more time for additional Tribal entires to apply and not unduly delaying the grant of licenses to those that already have applied.
T‑Mobile Launches Project 10Million, Historic $10.7B Initiative Aimed at Closing the Homework Gap and Connecting Students to Opportunity – for Free
T-Mobile is officially launching Project 10Million, an unprecedented $10.7B initiative aimed at delivering internet connectivity to millions of underserved student households at no cost to them. Partnering with school districts across the country, the program offers free wireless hotspots, free high-speed data and access to laptops and tablets, at-cost. And as the COVID-19 pandemic makes remote learning the new norm for millions of students across the US, the T-Mobile is expanding Project 10Million to offer more data options, including unlimited, for school districts to pass on to eligible student households at no cost to them.
Schools can choose a 100GB per month option or a fully unlimited plan. Every district gets free wireless hotspots and access to at-cost laptops and tablets, and they have the flexibility to pick the solution that works best for their district. And it’s all still free to students.
Commercial satellite Internet has only been around for about 20 years, and it was highly limited at first. Despite the technology’s weaknesses, such as low speeds and data limits, satellite offered a path to improved connectivity for rural markets that had no other options. The capacity of satellite Internet will significantly increase when HughesNet and Viasat launch new satellites in 2021.
Then there’s the other type of commercial satellite technology with which Amazon and SpaceX plan to provide service. HughesNet and Viasat use geosynchronous satellites, which are located about 22,000 miles above the equator and match the rotation of the planet, meaning that they appear to be in a fixed position and only require line of sight for a connection. Amazon and SpaceX will use low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that zip around the planet more quickly at lower heights, meaning that tens of thousands of LEO satellites are needed to maintain Internet connections on the ground.
The advantage of LEO satellites is that they can bring reduced latency, which would be ideal for gaming and stock trading. One drawback of LEO satellites is that they need to be replaced more often than geosynchronous satellites. The jury is still out on the speeds that will be achieved by LEO satellites. Although the satellite Internet market continues to grow, there are still unknowns about its potential.
The Federal Communications Commission released a Public Notice providing additional information and guidance for potential applicants interested in applying for its Connected Care Pilot Program. The Pilot Program will provide up to $100 million from the Universal Service Fund over a three-year period to support the provision of connected care services, with an emphasis on supporting these services for lowincome Americans and veterans. The FCC will release a subsequent Public Notice with details regarding application procedures, including the timing of the application window.
When it comes to telemedicine in 2020—and thanks to coronavirus, 2020 turns out to be the year for telemedicine—the digital divide isn’t equally distributed. In the early days of the pandemic, the federal government says, 44 percent of Medicare-funded primary care visits were conducted virtually; that figure was 0.1 percent in Feb. (Private insurers report a huge increase in telehealth claims this year, to 16 million in June, from about 500,000 in June 2019.) Older Americans are among the most likely to need health care—about a quarter of all doctors’ office visits are for people over age 65—and yet they are least likely to be able to access the virtual doctors’ appointments that have skyrocketed in the past six months.
Nationwide, 41 percent of people covered by Medicare don’t have an internet-capable computer or smartphone at home. “The digital divide is not unique to older populations, but it’s particularly pronounced in those populations because they have less access to technology,” says Eric Roberts, who teaches health policy at the University of Pittsburgh. He worries that vulnerable Medicare recipients, very old people, and communities of color would have trouble having a video visit with a health care provider. “We already know that those populations have difficulty accessing care—that concern preceded Covid—and now the migration to a digital format could widen those disparities.”
Facebook will prohibit new political advertisements in the week before the US presidential election in Nov and seek to flag premature claims of victory by candidates, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said. The steps are meant to head off last-minute misinformation campaigns and limit the potential for civil unrest, Zuckerberg said. “I’m worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or even weeks to be finalized, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country,” he said, adding that “our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election.”
Among the moves Facebook announced are plans to append a label to any false or premature claims of victory by candidates that will direct users to vote tallies and current results. The Reuters news service will join with Facebook to provide that information. Facebook also plans to prohibit campaigns from running new political ads during the final week of the campaign, Zuckerberg said. The step is meant to prevent campaigns from promoting misinformation at the last minute, when there won’t be adequate time to rebut it, the company said. Other new Facebook election policies include limitations on the volume of messages that can be sent through its Messenger product and an expansion of Facebook’s rules against voter suppression to cover implicit attempts to mislead Facebook users about voting procedures. Facebook will also seek to protect election officials from threats of violence during the vote-counting process, he said. The company will also start implementing its plans to take down misinformation about voting, effective immediately.
In the aftermath of the Kenosha (WI) shooting, an activist group called Change the Terms is calling on Facebook to institute new policies around potentially dangerous content, including a blanket ban on “event pages that encourage people to bring weapons to events.” In a letter to Mark Zuckerberg on Sept 3, groups called for a broad enhancement of Facebook’s moderation against extremism, including more automated tools for proactive enforcement and better systems for detecting event pages that promote violence. Another recommendation echoes an internal Facebook report (obtained by Buzzfeed News last week) that suggested better monitoring of spikes in user feedback reports. “We cannot stress enough the urgency of our requests,” the letter reads. “You have the power to save lives and significantly influence the health of our democracy.”
In a joint filing Sept. 2 to the Federal Communications Commission, six diversity groups said "no" to the question of whether the FCC should accede to the Trump Administration's desire to regulate social media content to prevent what the President has called censorship of conservative speech. The groups said they were not against finding a way to weed out racial and gender discrimination voter suppression and other internet inequities — which they suggest should be Congress' job — but that Sec. 230 should not be unilaterally reinterpreted to suit the President's internet agenda.
Filing the comments were the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), the Hispanic Federation, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (The National Coalition), the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), and the National Urban League (NUL).
Recently, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration reported initial results from our latest NTIA Internet Use Survey, which showed that Americans were increasingly using a larger and more varied range of devices. But with dozens of topics covered in the survey, there is a lot more we can learn from this data collection, including questions about online activities such as checking email, watching videos and participating in the sharing economy.
Our data show that approximately 51 million Americans reported using the Internet to work remotely in 2019, nearly a third of the estimated 160 million Americans who were employed in Nov. A smaller number, about 43 million Americans, said they used the Internet to take classes or complete job training last year. That represents about 20 percent of Internet users ages 15 or older. Although our survey was conducted in Nov 2019, a few months before the outbreak of the coronavirus, the results can be helpful to understanding the extent to which Americans were prepared to work and learn online.
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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