Federal Communications Commission

With time running out in the lame-duck session of Congress, there is still no scheduled vote on advancing [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] Gigi Sohn’s nomination to the Federal Communications Commission. At deadline, her appointment was not listed among the 104 pending nominations on the Senate’s executive calendar, with the last action noted as “failed to report her favorably” out of committee, according to congress.

The authors were previously asked to analyze from an economic perspective the appropriate contribution methodology for the federal Universal Service Fund (USF). In a prior study, they analyzed the effects of modifying and expanding the “contribution base,” i.e., the supply of financial resources for the USF, to include both voice and broadband connections. In particular, the prior study investigated the economic effects of modifying and expanding the contribution base on broadband adoption rates.

Representatives Bill Johnson (R-OH) and Kim Schrier (D-WA) introduced the ALERT Parity Act. This legislation would direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue rules for the provision of emergency connectivity service. It would enable providers of emergency connectivity services, including providers of satellite direct-to-cell service, to apply to the FCC to access spectrum to fill in commercial mobile service coverage gaps in unserved areas specifically to provide connectivity for emergency services.

Sen Markey and Rep Meng urged Congressional leadership to include $1 billion in the disaster supplemental division of the year-end omnibus for the Federal Communications Commission's Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF), which supports devices and broadband services for students and educators to connect to the internet at home. This funding would be sufficient for the FCC to fund every valid application it received in the most recent application window.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB), in conjunction with the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA), authorized Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (Auction 904) support for the winning bids by GigaBeam Networks in West Virginia, and Pear Networks in Vermont. The support will be disbursed in 120 monthly payments from the Universal Service Fund (USF), which will begin at the end of December 2022.

Nearly two years have come and gone without a fifth commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, the agency tasked to regulate the corporate behemoths that control how Americans gather, receive, and transmit information. Almost a year into President Biden’s first term, the White House nominated Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society], a public-interest advocate who served as a top counselor to Obama FCC chair Tom Wheeler.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Shielding Children's Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net (SCREEN) Act, which would direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue a rule requiring all commercial pornographic websites to adopt age verification technology to ensure children cannot access pornographic content. Specifically, the SCREEN Act:

The Federal Communications Commission has received several petitions and requests from E-Rate stakeholders through the annual E-Rate eligible services list (ESL) proceedings, asking that the FCC permit the use of E-Rate program funds to support advanced or next-generation firewalls and services, as well as other network security services. The FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on these petitions as well as the related funding year 2023 ESL proceeding filings.

The Lifeline program and the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) serve a vital role in providing low-income Americans with affordable access to essential communication services. Between November 21 and December 8, 2022, the National Lifeline Association (NaLA) surveyed more than 60,000 customers who use the Lifeline and/or ACP program about who they are and how they use the programs. Survey results indicate that low-income consumers use Lifeline and/or ACP service to connect to family and to access other government programs, healthcare, jobs and online education.

With a big push nationwide to get customers enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), most broadband providers seem to have forgotten about the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program that can provide a monthly discount of $9.25 off a telephone or broadband bill for qualifying customers. Customers can qualify for both the ACP discount and Lifeline, meaning an ISP can collect a total subsidy of $39.25 for a qualifying customer. Any ISP that is participating in ACP in order to reach low-income households should consider the Lifeline discount as well.