Daily Digest 7/3/2024 (Robert Bertram Schwartz)
Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Headlines Daily Digest
Headlines will return MONDAY, July 8. Enjoy the holiday weekend.
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Broadband Funding in Three States
Supreme Court Extends Time Frame for Challenges to Regulations
Broadband Funding
Telephony
State/Local
Platforms/Social Media
Government Performance
Devices
Stories From Abroad
Generations before us built infrastructure such as electricity, water, and sewer systems to serve everyone in America. Now, it is our generation’s turn to connect everyone in America to the tools they need to thrive in the modern digital economy through reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service. In 2023, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded nearly $980 million to deploy over 12,500 miles of new middle mile fiber through the Enabling Middle Mile Broadband Infrastructure (Middle Mile) Program to 36 organizations across 40 states and territories. This investment will build new and resilient Internet highways that help lower the cost for last-mile providers to deploy future networks and increase end users' access to reliable, affordable, high-speed Internet service. As a highlight of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Infrastructure Week, NTIA held a public webinar featuring three Middle Mile Program recipients that aim to fill the gaps in our nation’s middle mile infrastructure and advance NTIA’s national goals of increasing connectivity, affordability, and equity. These projects highlight the diversity of middle mile infrastructure needs across the country.
Biden-Harris Administration Announces Next Funding Round of $504 Million for 12 Tech Hubs Across America
The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), announced another funding round of approximately $504 million in implementation grants to 12 Tech Hubs to scale up the production of critical technologies, create jobs in innovative industries, strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness and national security, and accelerate the growth of industries of the future in regions across the United States. EDA has selected projects for funding in the following 12 Hubs, with award amounts to be finalized in the coming months:
- Elevate Quantum Tech Hub (Colorado, New Mexico)
- Headwaters Hub (Montana)
- Heartland BioWorks (Indiana)
- iFAB Tech Hub (Illinois)
- Nevada Tech Hub (Nevada)
- NY SMART I-Corridor Tech Hub (New York)
- ReGen Valley Tech Hub (New Hampshire)
- SC Nexus for Advanced Resilient Energy (South Carolina, Georgia)
- South Florida ClimateReady Tech Hub (Florida)
- Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub (Ohio)
- Tulsa Hub for Equitable & Trustworthy Autonomy (Oklahoma)
- Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub (Wisconsin)
This is the third in a three-part series about the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program announcement from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program is the second set of funds available in the Digital Equity Act (DEA) authorized by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021. The State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program includes funds for Native entities to address barriers to digital equity in their communities. Funds may be used to create a digital equity plan, implement digital equity activities, and administer subgrants to eligible organizations that support the Native entity’s digital equity outcomes and goals. This article details some of the things Native entities should know about the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, including allowable uses, strategies and activities, and application details.
In this Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Federal Communications Commission proposed to extend, for an additional six years, the jurisdictional separations category relationships and cost allocation factors freeze for rate-of-return incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs). The current freeze extension is set to expire on December 31, 2024. Further extending this freeze will enable the FCC to continue to work with the Federal-State Joint Board on Jurisdictional Separations to determine next steps in amending the separations rules in light of sweeping technological and regulatory changes since these rules were initially adopted. We expect that the benefits of further extending the separations rules’ freeze likely outweigh the costs of allowing it to end. The FCC renewed the existing outstanding referrals to the Joint Board that include both comprehensive and interim reform measures to the separations process.
South Carolina Completes Historic $400 Million American Rescue Plan Commitment to Connect Over 112,380 Locations
The South Carolina Broadband Office (SCBBO) announced the historic conclusion of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant programs that have resulted in the commitment of $400 million to expand high-speed internet access to over 112,380 unserved or underserved Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs) statewide. The 25-month process was initiated on May 13, 2022, when Governor Henry McMaster (R-SC) signed Act 244 into law, which allocated ARPA funding to a variety of state agencies—including $400 million to the SC Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS, home to the SCBBO) to expand broadband infrastructure. Overall, it took four grant rounds to achieve this result. The SCBBO signed the final agreement of its ARPA SLFRF 3.0 competitive grant program that – in total – awarded the remaining $43,333,179.32 to 12 different Internet Service Providers (ISPs), across 23 projects in 30 counties. These final projects, together with private-sector match, represent a total project cost of $82,504,557 that will deploy approximately 1,684 miles of fiber and connect 21,253 BSLs. Across the four grant rounds, the SCBBO deployed $399,331,884 (99.8%) for infrastructure and utilized less than 1% for non-infrastructure expenses. When combined with $263,059,123 in private-sector match, the SCBBO’s ARPA programs resulted in an estimated $663,059,112 broadband infrastructure investment for South Carolina. This amount reflects an overall match rate of 39.7% non-ARPA funds (other federal and/or private investment), in addition to the ARPA funds provided by the SCBBO. Taken collectively, ARPA broadband funds were awarded to 19 ISPs for 129 projects. The funding positively impacts all 46 counties and is currently transforming the Main Street communities of Norway and Ridge Spring, SC. When complete, ARPA funds will have fueled the construction of approximately 13,250 miles of fiber to over 112,380 BSLs. In addition to receiving ARPA grant funds, all recipients are required propose and commit to affordable monthly rates – without income qualifications – for a designated number of years following construction completion. Based on the rates proposed by ISPs, affordable rates in the SCBBO’s grant program range from $29.95 to $85.00 at minimum speeds of 100/20 Mbps. Further, many grant recipients have also pledged to offer free Wi-Fi in designated areas, and some are offering digital-skills training.
Nineteen More Counties to Receive Expanded Internet Access through North Carolina’s Completing Access to Broadband Program
The North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s (NCDIT) Division of Broadband and Digital Equity announced an additional $112 million in Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program projects to connect 25,903 households and businesses in 19 counties to high-speed internet. These projects will be funded by more than $61 million from the federal American Rescue Plan awarded by NCDIT, more than $25 million from counties and nearly $26 million from selected broadband providers:
- Buncombe County: Bellsouth Telecommunications, LLC (AT&T North Carolina). This award will provide high-speed internet access to 967 locations (40% of the county’s 2,394 eligible locations).
- Burke County: Connect Holding II, LLC (Brightspeed) and Spectrum Southeast, LLC (Charter Communications). These awards will provide high-speed internet access to 742 locations (21% of the county’s 3,469 eligible locations).
- Caldwell County: Spectrum Southeast, LLC (Charter Communications). This award will provide high-speed internet access to 160 locations (9% of the county’s 1,769 eligible locations).
- Caswell County: Spectrum Southeast, LLC (Charter Communications). This award will provide high-speed internet access to 589 locations (38% of the county’s 1,552 eligible locations).
- Cumberland County: Connect Holding II, LLC (Brightspeed) and StarVision, Inc. These awards will provide high-speed internet access to 1,692 locations (74% of the county’s 2,286 eligible locations).
- Edgecombe County: Connect Holding II, LLC (Brightspeed). This award will provide high-speed internet access to 1,420 locations (64% of the county’s 2,212 eligible locations).
- Franklin County: Connect Holding II, LLC (Brightspeed). This award will provide high-speed internet access to 2,374 locations (50% of the county’s 4,714 eligible locations).
- Granville County: Roanoke Connect Holdings (Fybe). This award will provide high-speed internet access to 1,697 locations (40% of the county’s 4,237 eligible locations).
- Harnett County: Connect Holding II, LLC (Brightspeed). This award will provide high-speed internet access to 1,539 locations (32% of the county’s 4,878 eligible locations).
- Macon County: BalsamWest FiberNET, LLC. These awards will provide high-speed internet access to 1,163 locations (45% of the county’s 2,598 eligible locations).
- Martin County: Connect Holding II, LLC (Brightspeed). This award will provide high-speed internet access to 2,064 locations (95% of the county’s 2,181 eligible locations).
- Northampton County: Connect Holding II, LLC (Brightspeed) and Spectrum Southeast, LLC (Charter Communications). These awards will provide high-speed internet access to 902 locations (94% of the county’s 963 eligible locations).
- Person County: Spectrum Southeast, LLC (Charter Communications). These awards will provide high-speed internet access to 1,850 locations (54% of the county’s 3,412 eligible locations).
- Polk County: Skyrunner, Inc. This award will provide high-speed internet access to 2,680 locations (92% of the county’s 2,919 eligible locations).
- Rockingham County: Spectrum Southeast, LLC (Charter Communications). This award will provide high-speed internet access to 898 locations (39% of the county’s 2,286 eligible locations).
- Stanly County: Bellsouth Telecommunications, LLC (AT&T North Carolina) and Windstream North Carolina, LLC. These awards will provide high-speed internet access to 1,013 locations (22% of the county’s 4,566 eligible locations).
- Swain County: Zito West Holding, LLC (Zito Media). This award will provide high-speed internet access to 518 locations (32% of the county’s 1,595 eligible locations).
- Wake County: Bellsouth Telecommunications, LLC (AT&T North Carolina) and Spectrum Southeast, LLC (Charter Communications). These awards will provide high-speed internet access to 1,722 locations (63% of the county’s 2,751 eligible locations).
- Warren County: Connect Holding II, LLC (Brightspeed) and Spectrum Southeast, LLC (Charter Communications). These awards will provide high-speed internet access to 1,913 locations (66% of the county’s 2,895 eligible locations).
Healey-Driscoll Administration Awards More Than $45 Million in Grants to Extend High-Speed Internet Coverage Statewide
The Healey-Driscoll Administration, in partnership with Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's (MassTech) Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), awarded $45.4 million in grants through the state’s Broadband Infrastructure Gap Networks Program, a program funded through the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund that aims to expand high-speed broadband internet infrastructure to underserved homes, business, and community anchor institutions across the state. The grant recipients include Comcast, Greenfield Community Energy and Technology, Spectrum Northeast LLC, and Verizon New England Inc. Recipients will use the grants, along with more than $40 million in matching funds, to deploy high-speed internet lines to approximately 2,000 locations in 41 Massachusetts communities that lack access to a broadband connection.
Grant recipients will use funds to deliver projects that must:
- Deliver service that meets or exceeds internet speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 100 Mbps for uploads
- Provide internet access to 100% of all existing unserved and underserved serviceable locations
- Provide a minimum 20% funding match with waivers provided to certain municipalities that have existing debt obligations associated with municipal fiber-to-the-premise projects
- Reach substantial project completion before December 31, 2026
|
Grant Recipient |
Communities Covered |
Grant Amount |
|
Comcast |
Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Monson, Nantucket, Oak Bluffs, Palmer, Tisbury, Ware, West Tisbury |
$2,693,365 |
|
Greenfield Community Energy and Technology |
Greenfield |
$758,734 |
|
Spectrum Northeast LLC |
Florida, Hawley, Monroe, Savoy |
$4,904,841 |
|
Verizon New England Inc. |
Agawam, Amesbury, Amherst, Ashburnham, Attleboro, Barre, Bernardston, Brewster, Chicopee, Dartmouth, Deerfield, Fall River, Falmouth, Gloucester, Harwich, Holyoke, Lunenburg, Mashpee, North Brookfield, Sandwich, Sheffield, Townsend, Springfield, Warren, Wellfleet, Yarmouth |
$37,068,263 |
The Supreme Court's decision limiting executive branch power also further hobbled U.S. government efforts to roll back Big Tech's power. The Supreme Court's decision essentially scuttles the regulatory strategy Congress has long used to establish rules for complex technical realms like health care, the environment and telecommunications. For 40 years, under a Supreme Court principle known as "Chevron deference," Congress has assumed it can draft broad principles establishing its goals and plans—and leave the complex implementation details and case-by-case calls to experts at executive branch agencies. By overturning the Chevron principle, the court is requiring Congress to write laws that predict the future. This regulatory revolution comes as the U.S. government is just beginning to get its head around AI's emergence as tech's new platform. Chevron's demise means that any government effort to set guardrails around AI's risks will be harder to pass and enforce.
The Supreme Court gave companies more time to challenge many regulations, ruling that a six-year statute of limitations for filing lawsuits begins when a regulation first affects a company rather than when it is first issued. The ruling in the case—the latest in a series of challenges to administrative power—could amplify the effect of the blockbuster decision overturning a foundational legal precedent known as Chevron deference, which required federal courts to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes. That decision imperils countless regulations, particularly on the environment, and advances a longstanding goal of the conservative legal movement. Environmental advocates warned that the combined effect of the decisions on administrative agencies could be especially profound for the thousands of regulations enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency.
European Commission sends preliminary findings to Meta over its “Pay or Consent” model for breach of the Digital Markets Act
The European Commission has informed Meta of its preliminary findings that its “pay or consent” advertising model fails to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). In the Commission's preliminary view, this binary choice forces users to consent to the combination of their personal data and fails to provide them a less personalised but equivalent version of Meta's social networks. The Commission takes the preliminary view that Meta's “pay or consent” advertising model is not compliant with the DMA as it does not meet the necessary requirements set out under Article 5(2). In particular, Meta's model:
- Does not allow users to opt for a service that uses less of their personal data but is otherwise equivalent to the “personalised ads” based service.
- Does not allow users to exercise their right to freely consent to the combination of their personal data.
By sending preliminary findings, the Commission informs Meta of its preliminary view that the company is in breach of the DMA. Meta now has the possibility to exercise its rights of defence by examining the documents in the Commission's investigation file and replying in writing to the Commission's preliminary findings.
The digital divide is a global problem. NCTA – the Internet & Television Association released last week a documentary called “Every Last Mile,” which aims to illustrate the challenges ISPs face in building broadband in rural America, but we went a step further. We looked at which broadband and telecommunications startups are tackling connectivity on a global scale.
- Althea: Althea, launched in 2017, is a decentralized internet service that essentially lets consumers customize the network’s speed and how much they want to pay. The Althea platform is being used across 13 U.S. states and four countries, including Ghana.
- Astranis: Astranis, founded in 2015, operates geostationary (GEO) communications satellites, and it’s working with internet service providers across the globe to connect remote locations.
- CSquared: Africa’s broadband infrastructure scene is growing thanks to CSquared Group, which first launched as a project within Google back in 2011. Its mission? To build open access fiber networks across the continent.
- Transcelestial: Singapore-based Transcelestial has a futuristic-sounding approach to broadband. It’s created a device called CENTAURI that delivers high-speed internet via laser beam—foregoing the need to install fiber cables or license spectrum.
- QTI: Founded in 2020, QTI’s core product is Quell-X, which is a QKD system that generates quantum-secured keys. This allows the network operator to identify any unwanted eavesdroppers on the communications link.
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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