Internet/Broadband

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) in a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, urged the agency to find ways to better utilize spectrum in the mid-band range for commercial use.

Chairman Thune’s letter, sent amidst the Trump administration’s focus on tech policy this week, stresses the need to modernize spectrum policy to keep pace with innovation as the nation moves toward a 5G world: “While the U.S. has pushed ahead with efforts to free new spectrum at both low and high frequencies, we lag behind other countries in ‘mid-band spectrum’ - the range of frequencies between 3GHz and 7 GHz,” wrote Thune to Pai. “Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea are all moving ahead to allocate hundreds of megahertz of mid-band spectrum, for licensed and unlicensed uses, in anticipation of both new Internet of Things applications as well as rising demand for mobile broadband that can be met with small cell deployments.” To bolster development of next generation wireless services, Chairman Thune re-introduced the bipartisan MOBILE NOW Act in January 2017 that would help free up large swaths of spectrum for commercial use by 2020.

The House Communications Subcommittee drilled down on coverage mapping and definitions in a hearing June 21. Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) also made some news, saying the subcommittee was looking to hold a Federal Communications Commission oversight hearing in July. The hearing focused on updating the National Broadband Map, which has not happened since June 2014, "if you can believe that," she added, as well as what the definition of access to broadband should be, high-speed or basic, unserved or underserved.

Chairman Blackburn said the digital divide continues to plague rural America, echoing the consensus at the Senate hearing a day before, but also said the government needs to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money by having accurate data so that areas with the greatest need are targeted "by both public and private investment." She said accurate definitions and mapping data is imperative so that "hardworking taxpayer money" goes to areas that most need it. On the other side, Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) said he and Chairman Blackburn agreed broadband was critical for the nation and the economy, and the country was still struggling to connect unserved and underserved members of the community. He said that while Universal Service funding was making a dent, more needed to be done.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) chastised Democratic Reps for not rallying around her internet privacy bill, after they criticized the GOP’s efforts to kill privacy restrictions earlier in 2017. At a House Commerce technology subcommittee hearing on broadband coverage, Democratic Reps criticized the committee’s leadership for not holding hearings on net neutrality, internet privacy or oversight for the FCC. "I will say to my colleagues that I would be happy to discuss my Browser Act on the privacy issue, and we have reached out to all of the Democratic offices in the House on this issue,” Chairman Blackburn responded, adding that she was “disappointed” by the lack of response to her outreach.

Members of the new Broadband Access Coalition called on the Federal Communications Commission to authorize a new, licensed, point-to-multipoint (P2MP) fixed wireless service in the underutilized 3700 - 4200 MHz spectrum band used primarily by fixed satellite services. The proposed licensing scheme and operating rules enable gigabit and near-gigabit broadband service in rural and underserved areas, and promote competition for broadband delivery among various technologies and licensees.

I am heartened that at the very beginning of the latest [network neutrality] process, we have already seen another five million speak out. And as significant as that is, it still may not be enough. We must go broader, and deeper, form coalitions and interest groups, have discussions and town halls, about what all of this means to everyday people and communities large and small, and how we can never take any of this for granted. Our most important and precious protections, and the principles on which they are built, are at stake, and we can ill-afford to sit idly by, or get tired as they are sacrificed at the altar of small government and large business interests. You are in the most unique position to do just that. I am in a unique position to do just that. Together, united, we are the force, that will ensure that those First Amendment principles, that distinguish this great nation from so many around the globe, applies to a platform that is the most inclusive and empowering of our time.

Sixty-percent of respondents in a Morning Consult/POLITICO poll said they support rules that say internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon “cannot block, throttle or prioritize certain content on the internet.” The difference between supporters by party was 2 percentage points, with 59 percent of Republicans and 61 percent of Democrats backing the rules. The same percentage of tea party supporters and Democrats expressed strong support for net neutrality, at 37 percent.

In 2014, Tumblr was on the front lines of the battle for network neutrality. The company stood alongside Amazon, Kickstarter, Etsy, Vimeo, Reddit, and Netflix during Battle for the Net’s day of action. Tumblr CEO David Karp was also part of a group of New York tech CEOs that met with then-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler in Brooklyn that summer, while the Federal Communications Commission was fielding public comment on new Title II rules. But three years later, as the battle for net neutrality heats up once again, Tumblr has been uncharacteristically silent.

One reason for Karp and Tumblr’s silence? Last week Verizon completed its acquisition of Tumblr parent company Yahoo, kicking off the subsequent merger of Yahoo and AOL to create a new company called Oath. As one of the world’s largest ISPs, Verizon is notorious for challenging the principles of net neutrality — it sued the FCC in an effort to overturn net neutrality rules in 2011, and its general counsel Kathy Grillo published a note this April complimenting new FCC chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to weaken telecommunication regulations.

A Tennessee utility company has threatened to remove Comcast’s cables from its poles if the company doesn’t pay $176,000 the utility claims it's owed by June 28. "We've been going back and forth with them for going on three years now trying to get payment out of them," said Scott Sims, CFO for Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corp., to WREG-TV Memphis. The utility, which serves around 50,000 customers in Tipton County (TN) said it delivered a 30-day “final” notice to Comcast in late May, seeking a payment on a charges dating back to June 2014. It is unclear as to how many of the utility’s 50,000 customers also subscribe to Comcast services. For its part, Comcast is disputing the amount of the bill, claiming the utility double-charged it in 2015 after it allegedly found pole attachments Comcast hadn’t been paying for. Comcast said it requested evidence supporting the charges, but that it hasn’t been provided.

The Senate Communications Subcommittee on June 20 took a deep dive into the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund, with a focus on rural broadband deployment and telehealth. Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) signaled that he and Ranking Member Brian Schatz (D-HI) were reintroducing the Reaching Underserved Rural Areas to Lead [RURAL] on Telehealth Act, which would qualify some rural healthcare providers for USF funds. He said robust broadband connections are vital to the adoption of "lifesaving technology." Wicker, who previously has introduced a bill requiring the FCC to improve broadband data collection, said, "[E]nsuring broadband deployment to rural healthcare providers is a critical component of the USF program." He also said the importance of delivering broadband to rural areas cannot be understated, citing economic and digital innovation.

One of the central arguments in the Net Neutrality debate is over whether the Federal Communications Commission’s controversial 2015 decision to reclassify broadband Internet access as a common carrier “telecommunications” service had a negative effect on network investment in 2016. The evidence is mounting that it did. Free Press believes the consistency in the data does not carry over to Broadband Service Providers’ (“BSPs”) advocacy, however. Comparing statements made by BSPs to the FCC and to Wall Street, Free Press contends that these apparent inconsistencies imply that the companies are lying to the Commission and to the public about the effect of Title II on investment. The Internet Association—a trade group of companies favoring aggressive Internet regulation—recently borrowed from Free Press’s report to produce an online video summarizing the Free Press narrative.

Ford subjects Free Press and the Internet Association’s anecdotal evidence to review, and finds that it is Free Press and the Internet Association—and not BSPs—who are not telling the whole story. Free Press and the Internet Association have presented a false narrative to both the FCC and the public at large, and that their evidence actually points to the harms of reclassification on investment incentives.