Competition/Antitrust

When I moved to Drain (OR) population 1,169, I did so because it was my dream to buy a small farm and land is cheaper here than in larger towns. What I didn’t realize was that in rural America, internet options are often limited. Now that the libraries and businesses I used to rely on for internet have closed, the threads of connection I clung to before have been taken away. I cannot rent DVDs. I cannot go to the library to work. Even cruising grocery store aisles is a bad idea.

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, who has previously waded into debates on net neutrality, slammed the Federal Communications Commission and broadband companies for not doing enough to address the digital divide. In a video with Rep.

Verizon is one of numerous home-Internet providers offering temporarily free service to low-income households during the pandemic. But a big restriction on Verizon's offer makes it impossible for many people to get the deal. Verizon on March 23 said it would provide two months of free home-Internet and phone service for current low-income subscribers in the Lifeline program and $20 monthly discounts for new low-income subscribers. The $20 discount lowers the starting price for 200Mbps Internet to $19.99 a month.

Verizon is canceling many home-Internet installations and repairs during the pandemic, and some customers are being given appointment dates in Nov when they try to schedule an installation. The Nov appointment dates appear to be placeholders that will eventually be replaced by earlier dates. But Verizon is sending mixed messages to customers about when appointments will actually happen and about whether technicians are allowed to enter their homes.

One small silver lining in the Covid-19 virulent cloud: an unsponsored and truly unbiased empirical test whether wireless broadband networks offer a direct competitive alternative to wired broadband.  The answer is clear: No.  Not even close. Despite all the happy talk and sponsored researcher advocacy, broadband consumers understand the financial incentive to use Wi-Fi access to wired broadband wherever available. When homebound consumers have access to wireless broadband access via their smartphones and wired broadband access via personal computers and Wi-Fi, they opt for the latte

Consumers are adopting stand-alone broadband services at a much higher rate than just two years ago, and analysts predict that the economic downturn prompted by the COVID-19 outbreak will accelerate the trend. With a recession looming, consumers may look to cut pay TV service in favor of more robust standalone internet packages once they're free to leave their homes. The broadband boom driven by the pandemic is likely to continue even after the virus dies down.

Internet providers stepping up in the midst of this crisis to maintain affordable service is the right thing to do in this moment—but it’s a short-term fix for a decades-long problem. To truly close the digital divide, cities and states (and Congress if needed) should follow the playbook from the 1930s, and from the many communities—red and blue, urban and rural—who have brought high-speed internet to all residents:

On March 9, 24 senators wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to express concerns about key details of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), particularly excluding areas that are awarded funding through the US Department of Agriculture's ReConnect program and state-run broadband deployment or subsidy programs from being eligible for the RDOF.

A photo essay that is part of a 10-city tour to surface America's persistent digital divide. 

The expansion of TV White Spaces as a potential solution to close the digital divide in rural areas will require more unlicensed and available mid-band spectrum, which has become quite scarce among providers. More access to fiber will be necessary to make these networks effective. Further, how we serve the “edge of the edges,” and especially those rural areas and local broadband companies that do not qualify for streamlined funding will need to be creatively addressed.

Twenty-eight senators wrote a letter to the Federal Communications Commission demanding that it consider how repealing net neutrality could negatively impact public safety, universal access, and broadband competition. In October 2019, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the Trump FCC’s repeal of the Open Internet Order as lawful but also ruled that the FCC failed to adequately consider public safety, the Lifeline program for low-income consumers, and competitive broadband providers’ access to poles needed to deploy their networks.