American Enterprise Institute
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Assessing Broadband Affordability Initiatives
Reducing the broadband affordability gap is an important and noble goal. Unfortunately, it is far from clear whether Lifeline, the federal program tasked with getting low-income households online, actually addresses this problem. For over a decade, academics, government watchdogs, and independent auditors have criticized the Federal Communications Commission’s inability or unwillingness to measure the program’s effectiveness—while private studies suggest much of this spending may be misdirected toward families at no risk of losing internet access.
Mark Jamison on Broadband in 2023 (American Enterprise Institute)
Submitted by benton on Fri, 01/06/2023 - 07:00![](https://www.benton.org/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/aei_6.png?itok=TDnMVhJz)
What Do We Mean When We Say Digital Discrimination?
Back in 1996, Congress amended the Communications Act to include antidiscrimination as part of American telecommunications policy.
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Avoiding a $75 Billion Broadband Flop
How much broadband will Americans get for the $75 billion that Congress committed in 2021? That’s enough money to equip an additional 17 million households with broadband, taking the US to 99 percent broadband coverage, according to a Federal Communications Commission staff paper and data from the Census Bureau.
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Fifth Circuit to Hear Long-Overdue Constitutional Challenge to Universal Service Fund
Each quarter, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) determines the Universal Service Fund (USF) surcharge that is placed on customers’ telecommunications bills. The surcharge is calculated by estimating the cost of the agency’s various universal service programs, divided by the industry’s anticipated telecommunications revenue. As those programs have grown, and that revenue has shrunk, the surcharge has risen from 3 percent in 1998 to a whopping 33 percent in 2021.
Mark Jamison: The New Social Media Playbook (American Enterprise Institute)
Submitted by benton on Thu, 11/03/2022 - 06:43Jim Harper: Twitter Should Moderate Communities, Not Content (American Enterprise Institute)
Submitted by dclay@benton.org on Wed, 11/02/2022 - 11:51Daniel Lyons: Elon Musk Confronts the Moderator’s Dilemma, Holds Mirror to Users (American Enterprise Institute)
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Americans Need Reliable FCC Commitments, and So Does Starlink
In 2020, the Federal Communications Commission committed to providing Starlink, a satellite internet network operating in 40 countries by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, with $885.5 million to expand broadband in unserved rural areas of the United States. But in August 2022, the FCC announced with almost no explanation that Starlink would receive nothing.