Universal Broadband

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.

President Donald Trump will commit on June 21 to improving internet access in the country’s hardest-to-reach rural areas as a part of his forthcoming push to improve the nation’s infrastructure.

President Trump will outline his pledge during a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, shortly after visiting Kirkwood Community College, which specializes in fields like precision agriculture. In the eyes of the White House, farmers can’t use emerging big data tools that track crops in real time without faster, more reliable broadband internet service — so the Trump administration intends to tackle that challenge as part of its campaign to upgrade the country’s roads and bridges. “Even in American agriculture, technology is the key to better yields and more returns,” said Ray Starling, the special assistant to the president for agriculture, trade and food assistance. Those farmers in the coming years will have to learn “not only how to turn a wrench,” Starling said, “but also how to write code and rewire circuit boards.” But Starling did not offer any specifics as to how Trump planned to improve broadband in the country’s agricultural heartland.

Driving around rural Erie County, Pennsylvania, what you notice — aside from rolling hills, old farm houses, and the occasional small town — are the movie rental stores. There are a lot of them. Jamie Buie is the manager of Family Video in Erie City. As she rang up a customer with a towering stack of DVDs, she said her decision to take a job here five years ago came down to internet access. "For the longest time, we had satellite internet," Buie said. "And with satellite internet, you have no way to stream movies at all. So that was why I originally picked my job with Family Video, so I could get cheap rentals." Thirty-eight percent of people in rural Erie County don’t have access to fixed broadband, according to the FCC’s 2016 Broadband Progress Report. Nationwide, almost 40 percent of rural Americans lack access to fixed broadband, compared to just 4 percent of urban Americans. The movie rental business might benefit from lack of broadband, but it’s hurting many others.

[Commentary] Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai rightfully gets a lot of crap for his hostility toward net neutrality, but as someone who lives and works out where the Milky Way still shines in its full glory at night, I can't help but admire his talk of bridging the "digital divide" between "those who can use cutting-edge communications services and those who do not." This is a necessary thing. I don't think people in major cities understand how bad it is out here.

The cable industry’s top lobbying groups filed comments related to an April Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) intended to spur deployment of fiber wireline services. “Attachers face problems in obtaining access to poles, ducts, and conduit for two primary reasons. First, many utilities oppose mandated access to these facilities and have little, if any, incentive to provide access on a reasonable basis,” said the American Cable Association. “The second problem attachers face is that the Commission’s complaint process has proven to be of little value to attachers, especially smaller entities, in addressing all but the most serious and substantial attachment problems,” ACA added.

Rep David McKinley (R-WV) has introduced a bill that would require the Federal Communications Commission to establish a standard for whether wireless and wired broadband services in rural areas are reasonably comparable to those in urban areas.

The bill would "direct the Federal Communications Commission to promulgate regulations that establish a national standard for determining whether mobile and broadband services available in rural areas are reasonably comparable to those services provided in urban areas." The bill, the Rural Reasonable and Comparable Wireless Act of 2017 (HR 2903), has been referred to the House Energy & Commerce Committee. The bill is co-sponsored by Rep Peter Welch (D-VT).

In many rural communities, where available broadband speed and capacity barely surpass old-fashioned dial-up connections, residents sacrifice not only their online pastimes but also chances at a better living. In a generation, the travails of small-town America have overtaken the ills of the city, and this technology disconnect is both a cause and a symptom. Counties without modern internet connections can’t attract new firms, and their isolation discourages the enterprises they have: ranchers who want to buy and sell cattle in online auctions or farmers who could use the internet to monitor crops. Reliance on broadband includes any business that uses high-speed data transmission, spanning banks to insurance firms to factories.

Rural counties with more households connected to broadband had higher incomes and lower unemployment than those with fewer, according to a 2015 study by university researchers in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Texas who compared rural counties before and after getting high-speed internet service. “Having access to broadband is simply keeping up,” said Sharon Strover, a University of Texas professor who studies rural communication. “Not having it means sinking.”

Hispanics are less likely than other demographic groups to access the internet, while whites continue to be more connected than anyone else, according to new data from internet research company eMarketer. In 2017, less than 80 percent of Hispanics in the US will access the internet at least once a month from any device compared with 85 percent of whites, thanks to socio-economic factors, as well as education. In general, the less educated and economically advantaged a person is, the less likely they are to use the internet, according to eMarketer. The disparity has lessened over time but is still prominent as the internet becomes increasingly integral to daily life.

Approximately 85% of residents of Tribal lands in rural areas lack access to high-speed fixed broadband. Put more plainly, if you are part of that 85%, it’s almost like living in a different era—one in which it’s much harder to improve your life and the lives of your families. Discussions in Washington about 5G wireless networks, superfast Wi-Fi, and telemedicine don’t mean much if you don’t have access to them.

What can the Federal Communications Commission do to bring the benefits of digital communications to Indian Country? This past April, the FCC unanimously proposed several measures aimed at encouraging greater Internet access. These proposals build upon previous FCC decisions to make federal funding available for building new broadband networks. I’ve made clear that constructing these networks in rural areas, including unserved and underserved Tribal lands, is a top priority of mine.

[Commentary] Admittedly, “infrastructure” might not immediately come to mind when you think “Federal Communications Commission.” But maybe it should. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai often begins and ends his speeches talking about infrastructure investment. The analogy may be getting shop-worn, but in this day and age, who can doubt that reliable high-speed broadband networks are as crucial a component of the nation’s infrastructure as last century’s interstate highways.

Eliminating public utility-like regulation in the Restoring Internet Freedom rulemaking is an important part of the FCC’s focus on spurring greater investment by our nation’s internet service providers. And the pending proposals to encourage more investment in high-speed wireline and wireless broadband networks by eliminating, or at least curtailing, unnecessary or costly regulatory impediments have the same objective. Spurring private sector investment by internet service providers in high-speed broadband networks should be viewed as a key part of the nation’s infrastructure program. And the FCC should be viewed as a key infrastructure agency.

[Randolph J. May is president of the Free State Foundation]