Universal Broadband

Students increasingly must gain 21st century technology skills to succeed in life after high school. Despite the technological shift driven by rapid innovations, approximately 5 million US households with school-age children still do not have access to high-speed Internet at home. The paper gives school leaders guidance to improve digital access in their communities.

In addition, CoSN puts forth recommendations for districts to build and strengthen their networks and identifies funding opportunities for school systems to improve digital equity. These include leveraging capital expenditures, operational expenditures, federal and state funds, bonds, levies, grants, and in-kind and school-to-business partnerships to address digital equity. “School-to-Home” details the main barriers to extending broadband to homes nationwide. These include assessing size of the connectivity problem and addressing the need for adequate Internet access at home and in the community, particularly for students from low-income homes. Despite cost and lack of fiber or high-speed Internet availability, some districts are improving Internet access by promoting public Wi-Fi access, providing Internet in school parking lots and athletic fields, and establishing portable loaner Wi-Fi hotspots for student use to take home to do school work.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai was spotlighting the news that Sen Chris Coons (D-DE) has signed on as a cosponsor of the Gigabit Opportunity (GO) Act. The bill was introduced in May by Sen Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). The bill would give tax breaks to companies for investing in gigabit-capable expansion into those communities; direct the FCC to release a framework that encourages states, counties and cities to voluntarily adopt streamlined broadband laws and be designated as a “Gigabit Opportunity Zone;" and defer capital gains for upgrades and allow companies to expense the cost of creating those zones, as well as allow states to more easily issue tax-exempt bonds.

In a statement released after the news of Sen Coons' support, Chairman Pai said: “Closing the digital divide is a top national priority. Gigabit Opportunity Zones would go a long way toward meeting that priority. By streamlining regulations to encourage broadband deployment and establishing targeted tax incentives for entrepreneurs to build those networks, we can empower millions of Americans, rural and urban alike. This is a common sense idea, and I’m excited to see it gaining bipartisan support."

Nearly a quarter of the city-dwelling population in the US isn’t connected to broadband internet, according to a recent IHS Markit and Wireless Broadband Alliance study charted for us by Statista. To be clear, the US is doing a better job at making the internet available to its urban population than many other large nations. But the disconnect that does exist is what happens when you mix the relatively high costs of entry for broadband in America with the number of lower-income people living in cities in the first place. As the study notes, this simply makes it difficult for those people to participate in society at the same level.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says he did not discuss his proposal to roll back Title II classification of Internet service providers at a meeting at the White House but did talk about the building blocks of a wireless future—spectrum and infrastructure. Asked about the meeting by a reporter following the FCC's public meeting—particularly given Chairman Pai's criticism of what he thought as too close ties between the White House and Tom Wheeler on that issue—the chairman said they had an "excellent conversation" with tech and telecom leaders and his input was sought on the rollout of 5G and the Internet of Things.He called it a "very fruitful" conversation about spectrum and infrastructure and the like and that he looked forward to working with all interested parties.

As to FCC independence, he said the FCC was still an independent agency, but there were ways to collaborate with others in the Administration, before launching into a string of nautical references to make his point. He said he wanted to make sure "we are steering in the right direction," calling them "all sailors in the same boat" and saying that it was an "all hands on deck effort" to make sure wireless innovators have the necessary tools.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai issued the following statement following the President’s announcement that he will include expanding rural high-speed Internet access in his infrastructure proposal. “I am grateful to President Trump for his leadership on expanding high-speed Internet access in rural America. Far too many families and businesses in rural communities do not have access to adequate broadband, limiting their opportunities in the digital age. Closing the digital divide needs to be a national priority, and the President’s decision to include rural broadband in his infrastructure plan holds great promise for creating more jobs and prosperity in our nation’s rural areas.”

Local Des Moines (IA) CBS affiliate KCCI featured a story recently on ‘cord cutting’ of wireline telephone service that highlights the challenges of the current rural broadband regulatory framework for small, rural telecommunication companies. The report is somewhat misleading, in that it doesn’t provide a full explanation. An Ogden Telephone Company customer, Christina Janssen-Solheim, was featured because she complained about a policy of the phone company that is directly tied to the current regulatory framework. Janssen-Solheim complained that she was going to be charged $80 per month if she wanted to disconnect her landline telephone.

This paper reviews experiences with subsidizing telecommunications services, and broadband in particular, in the United States and around the world. Based on those lessons it proposes a path forward intended to yield the biggest broadband bang for the subsidy buck.

Specifically, an effective broadband subsidy program would:
Set a single, clear objective: bring broadband service to populated areas that do not have it.
Define “broadband” by taking into account consumer demand characteristics. This definition should be use-centric, not technology-centric. Any technology should be eligible to participate in the auction.
Make the program a one-time subsidy.
Rank-order the bids in terms of cost-effectiveness in terms of new locations, not area, connected per subsidy dollar. Fund the most cost-effective project first, the next most costeffective second, and so on until the budget is exhausted.
Rigorously evaluate the results and have organizations other than the one implementing the program conduct the evaluations.

[Commentary] Because infrastructure supply-siders wield considerable influence in this debate, connectivity efforts have taken center stage, pushing inclusion efforts and research to the side. Yet, effective policy will require customized approaches that focus on specific places and communities, matching both demand and supply concerns. Researchers agree. Broadband policy needs to move towards a more nuanced view. Hopefully policy makers will adopt it.

[Will Rinehart is a tech policy analyst in DC]

As part of its ongoing efforts to accelerate access to high-speed Internet service, the Federal Communications Commission is seeking comment on ways to increase deployment, competition and innovation in the market for broadband in apartments, shopping malls and other “multiple tenant environments,” or MTEs. While FCC rules currently bar telecommunications and video services providers from entering into exclusive agreements that can stifle competition in MTEs, the FCC has adopted a Notice of Inquiry seeking information about what additional barriers to deployment may exist. The FCC is requesting input on whether and how it should act to remove any barriers that raise the cost and slow deployment in MTEs of next-generation networks, which are critical to jobs, health care, education, innovation, and information.

Specifically, the Notice seeks comment on:

• The current state of broadband competition in MTEs.
• Whether there are state and local regulations that may inhibit or have the effect of inhibiting broadband deployment and competition within MTEs, such as by preventing market entry or mandating infrastructure sharing by private companies.
• Whether the Commission should take any action regarding service providers’ exclusive marketing and bulk billing arrangements within MTEs.
• How revenue sharing agreements and exclusive wiring arrangements between MTE owners and Internet service providers may affect broadband competition within MTEs.
• Other practices that may impact the ability of Internet service providers to compete in MTEs.

The Federal Communications Commission approved a request by WorldVu Satellites Limited, which does business as OneWeb, to access the United States satellite market. The action paves the way for OneWeb to provide broadband services using satellite technology that holds unique promise to expand Internet access in remote and rural areas across the country.

This approval is the first of its kind for a new generation of large, non-geostationary-satellite orbit (NGSO), fixed-satellite service (FSS) systems. OneWeb proposes to access the U.S. market for its global network of 720 low-Earth orbit satellites using the Ka (20/30 GHz) and Ku (11/14 GHz) frequency bands to provide global Internet connectivity. The satellite system will be authorized by the United Kingdom, but needs FCC approval to provide service in the US. In order for large broadband network constellations to deliver services in the US, the FCC must approve their operations to ensure the satellite constellation does not cause interference to other users of the same spectrum and will operate in a way that manages the risk of collisions. The Order and Declaratory Ruling outlines the conditions under which OneWeb will be permitted to provide service using its proposed NGSO FSS satellite constellation in the United States. As such, this FCC action provides a blueprint for the earth station licenses that OneWeb, or its partners, will need to obtain before providing OneWeb’s proposed service in the United States.