Network management

President Donald Trump released his legislative goals to rebuild our Nation’s crumbling infrastructure. The six principles include:

[Commentary] The solution to the country’s digital divide isn’t going to come from private-market competition, but rather from massive government mobilization. Just don’t call it “nationalization.”

The Federal Communications Commission's quest to prove that killing network neutrality is somehow raising broadband investment recently focused on Charter Communications. Charter, the second largest US cable company after Comcast, "is investing more in its broadband network and workforce because of the FCC's Restoring Internet Freedom Order [that repealed net neutrality rules] and last year's tax reform legislation," FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry claimed in a tweet Feb 8. But Charter raised its capital investment in 2017 while the net neutrality rules were in place.

Documents disclosed in late January suggest that, in order to move his nomination forward, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) head David Redl promised Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) that he would assemble a “panel of experts to investigate options for unwinding” the 2016 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition.

[Commentary] Rural America now has an opportunity to work with, and add to, the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network, FirstNet.  A recent study in Arizona showed a number of businesses would relocate to rural areas with sufficient workforces if the areas weren’t lacking broadband coverage. It has also been reported by Connect America, a group under the direction of the federal government, that areas that deploy broadband services are more likely to keep businesses already located in their area.

For my time today, I'd like to lay out some of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration's early international policy priorities in the new Administration. We plan to be aggressive in advocating for US interests and values in our engagement across the globe, at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the International Telecommunication Union and other fora.

In the latest in a legislative flurry of broadband-related items, a bipartisan bill has been introduced in both the House and Senate to promote rural broadband deployment and identify fallow broadband fields in key agricultural sectors.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai's claim that repealing network neutrality rules will boost network investment didn't get much support from Verizon's latest spending forecast. Verizon's network spending won't change much in 2018, and the company also won't be using its newfound tax savings to upgrade its broadband networks. Verizon reported $17.2 billion of capital expenditures in calendar year 2017, with the net neutrality rules in place the entire year.

[Commentary] With an upcoming Federal Communications Commission vote on whether cellphone data speeds are fast enough for work, entertainment and other online activities, Americans face a choice: Is modest-speed internet appropriate for rural areas, or do rural Americans deserve access to the far faster service options available in urban areas?

The Federal Communications Commission invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on the information collection necessary for the Restoring Internet Freedom Report and Order's rule requiring internet service providers disclosure of certain network management processes, performance characteristics, and other attributes of broadband internet access service. The order eliminates the additional collection imposed by the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order and adds a few discrete elements to the information collection requirements.