Benton Institute for Broadband & Society - Upcoming policy issue

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel

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Wed, 09/27/2023

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Daily Digest 9/26/2023

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Tue, 09/26/2023

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Speech

Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare

Emergency Communications

Federal Agency

Regulatory classification

Legislation

Communications Act of 1934

Level of Government

Federal

FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel Proposes to Restore Net Neutrality Rules to Re-Establish the FCC's Authority Over Broadband Providers Under Title II

benton — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 19:28:29 +0000

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel proposed that the FCC take the first procedural steps toward reaffirming rules that would treat broadband internet service as an essential service for American life. As work, healthcare, education, commerce, and so much more have moved online, no American household or business should need to function without reliable internet service. This was especially true during the pandemic. Such rules would affirm—under Title II of the Communications Act—that broadband service is on par with water, power, and phone service; that is: essential. The proposed rules would return fixed and mobile broadband service to its status as an essential “telecommunications” service. The proposal will be made public and will allow for public input. The proposal seeks to largely return to the successful rules the FCC adopted in 2015. The Chairwoman shared with her colleagues a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. If adopted by a vote of the full FCC at its monthly meeting on October 19, 2023, the agency will begin a new rulemaking to take public comment and reply comments on the proposal. Any person or organization can file comments and see others’ comments at https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs. After a review of that public record, the Chairwoman can decide whether and how to proceed, including adopting final rules which would also require a majority vote of the bipartisan FCC.

Benton Content:

https://www.fcc.gov/document/chairwoman-rosenworcel-proposes-restore-net-neutral…

Teaser:

"We have a window to update our policies to make sure that the internet is not only open, but fast and fair, safe and secure."

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Wed, 09/27/2023

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Daily Digest 9/26/2023

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Tue, 09/26/2023

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Press Release

Federal Agency

Regulatory classification

Level of Government

Federal

Network Neutrality

States are Relying on the Federal Affordable Connectivity Program to Close the Digital Divide

benton — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 11:25:47 +0000

With the common aim of ensuring that all people and communities have the skills, technology, and capacity needed to reap the full benefits of our digital economy, each of the 50 states is currently drafting a digital equity plan through what one official called “the largest demonstration of participatory democracy that our country has ever seen." The states are tasked with developing long-term objectives for closing the digital divide by addressing the needs of eight "covered populations"—including low-income households. Several states have released their draft digital equity plans and one tool they all rely heavily on for connecting—and keeping connected—low-income households is the Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). However, estimates from the Federal Communications Commission project that funding for the ACP could run out within the next year. Also see:

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/states-are-relying-federal-affordable-connectivity-p…

Teaser:

The impact of Affordable Connectivity Program funding on state digital equity plans

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https://www.benton.org/blog/broadband-five-years

Author:

Kevin Taglang

Grace Tepper

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Tue, 09/12/2023

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Daily Digest 9/11/2023

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Tue, 09/12/2023

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Analysis

Broadband in Five Years

benton — Tue, 03 May 2022 11:24:08 +0000

House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-SC) joined Glen Echo Group CEO Maura Corbett for a conversation at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s 40^th Anniversary celebration. In the wake of the unprecedented investment in broadband included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Corbett asked Clyburn where he thinks we’ll be in five years. “Oh, in five years,” Clyburn answered, “I think this is going to be a successful venture.” Representative Clyburn said attention now turns to states, like his home, South Carolina. Clyburn got a call from Governor Henry McMaster (R-SC) who said, “I'm getting ready to do the State of the State address and I'm going to be asking for a significant amount of dollars for your broadband program." “That's the way he said it. And he did. And he had already done a lot. And when we passed the infrastructure bill, he says, ‘Every residence, every business in this state, we are going to have connected in 3 to 4 years.’” Governor McMaster was the very first governor in the country to endorse Donald Trump. And Representative Clyburn is known for his influential endorsement of President Biden during the 2020 primaries. But the two see eye-to-eye on broadband.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

“Oh, in five years, I think this is going to be a successful venture.”

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Author:

Adrianne Furniss

Send date:

Wed, 05/04/2022

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Daily Digest 5/2/2022

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Tue, 05/03/2022

Coverage Type:

Reporting

Report on past event

Coronavirus and Connectivity

Headlines Specific Topic:

Pew

Action Needed Now to Preserve an Essential Lifeline During the Pandemic

benton — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 11:42:56 +0000

Universal service is the principle that all Americans should have access to essential communications services, like phones and broadband. You may not have heard much about it, but a universal service crisis is right around the corner. Due to Federal Communications Commission inaction, nearly 800,000 people could lose phone service on December 1. On that day, changes in the FCC’s Lifeline program, which provides a modest monthly discount for communications services, mean that voice-only services like a home landline telephone and/or a cellphone will no longer be eligible for the discount. The changes could mean people losing service at a time they need it most. As the December 1 deadline approaches, the FCC should quickly act, first, to ensure low-income people do not lose their essential telephone service during the COVID-19 pandemic. And the FCC should come to grips with the reality that Lifeline’s $9.25/month subsidy is too small to connect low-income households with robust broadband service. With the rollout of the Emergency Broadband Benefit, and the possibility, on passage of the infrastructure bill, of a permanent American Connectivity Plan, the FCC should think about low-income subsidies for communications services holistically to allow low-income households to be connected as most middle- and upper-income people do: with both a wireline broadband subscription and a cellular data plan.

[John Horrigan is a Benton Senior Fellow and a national expert on technology adoption, digital inclusion, and evaluating the outcomes and impacts of programs designed to promote communications technology adoption and use. Horrigan is leading Benton’s research on the FCC’s Lifeline program.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/action-needed-now-preserve-essential-lifeline-during…

Teaser:

The FCC should quickly act, first, to ensure low-income people do not lose their essential telephone service during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Author:

John Horrigan

Send date:

Tue, 10/26/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 10/25/2021

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Tue, 10/26/2021

Coverage Type:

Analysis

Affordability/Cost/Price

Wireless Telecommunications

Wireless Internet

Headlines Specific Topic:

Coronavirus and Connectivity

Lifeline Needs A Lifeline

Grace Tepper — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 21:19:52 +0000

In less than three months, nearly 800,000 low-income people who receive telephone subsidies through the Universal Service Fund's Lifeline program will be negatively impacted by changes scheduled to go into effect at the Federal Communications Commission on December 1, 2021. The FCC needs to change course and help more Americans keep connected to communications services that are essential to navigate the ongoing public health and economic crisis. Most importantly, the FCC should act swiftly and hit the pause button on the 2016 plan to zero-out support for voice-only services. During the pandemic, the stakes are just too high for anyone to be disconnected from essential communications networks. Then the FCC should launch a new effort to reform and further modernize the Lifeline program, informed by what we've witnessed during COVID, and the findings in Grant Thornton's and the FCC's own recent review of the Lifeline program.

Lifeline needs to have foundational governance documents—such as strategic plans, performance objectives, and an integrated communications plan—to assist in the longitudinal success and guidance of the program.
The FCC has to consider raising Lifeline's monthly subsidy, $9.25, so it can make more meaningful services affordable for low-income families.
The FCC must adopt changes in the program so it better benefits the people it was created to connect. This includes understanding the composition of Lifeline households and the specific services they need, finding ways to improve program enrollment, and providing opportunities for consumer feedback.
Changes in the Lifeline program should encourage all telecommunications and broadband service providers to compete to serve low-income households in their service areas.
The FCC should also consider revising its measure of affordability of broadband for low-income consumers. We need the FCC to act now to keep everyone connected. And we need the FCC to update the Lifeline program so everyone can rely on a basic level of connectivity no matter how much income they have.

[Adrianne B. Furniss is the Executive Director of the Benton Foundation.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/lifeline-needs-lifeline

Teaser:

We need the FCC to update the Lifeline program so everyone can rely on a basic level of connectivity no matter how much income they have.

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Author:

Adrianne Furniss

Send date:

Thu, 09/23/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 9/22/2021

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Publish Date:

Wed, 09/22/2021

Coverage Type:

Editorial

Affordability/Cost/Price

Lifeline/Low-Income Consumers

Universal Service Fund

Headlines Specific Topic:

Coronavirus and Connectivity

How Do We Pay For Universal Service?

benton — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 11:30:43 +0000

As the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act awaits a vote in the House of Representatives later this month, a debate over the future of the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund (USF) is already starting. Provisions in the infrastructure bill call for the FCC to quickly complete an evaluation of how the legislation will impact how the FCC's achieves the goal of deploying broadband to all Americans. Congress wants to know how the FCC can be more effective in achieving this goal. One brewing USF issue is how we pay for it. A report released this week by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, INCOMPAS, and NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association thoughtfully examines the issue.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/how-do-we-pay-universal-service

Teaser:

USForward: FCC Must Reform USF Contributions Now - An Analysis of the Options

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Author:

Kevin Taglang

Send date:

Fri, 09/17/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 9/16/2021

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Publish Date:

Fri, 09/17/2021

Coverage Type:

Analysis

Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

Research

Universal Service Fund

Rural Health Care

Lifeline/Low-Income Consumers

E-rate/Schools and Libraries Program

5G Fund for Rural America

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Grace Tepper — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 18:39:11 +0000

July 2021 brings us things to celebrate, things to denigrate, and things to absolutely deplore. On the good side, we have come to see that high-speed broadband has become an essential component of modern-day infrastructure. The ambitious broadband proposals of the Biden Administration have rightly gained strong public support, not just in one party, but both. We are also witnessing the reinvigoration of public agencies to protect the public interest, something Biden made clear in his Executive Order on competition. However, many of our most important institutions still stand in the way of needed progress. The ever-increasing dominance of consolidated and often monopolistic businesses has thwarted the kind of robust competition that an open, dynamic, and opportunity-creating economy demands. In government, the filibuster is a gag rule every bit as insidious as those John Quincy Adams spent years protesting when he went to Congress after being President.

Ugliness pervades in our rapidly deteriorating judiciary, as the increasing partisanship that bedevils too much of our court system threatens to stop needed change in its tracks. The sad state of our news and information infrastructure also fails to provide us with the facts and information citizens must have if we are to perpetuate self-government. If we are to have democracy, we must have media democracy. We need citizens—you and me—to take up this cause and organize to make sure elected officials at all levels understand that we are demanding a news and information system that serves the needs of successful self-government. We now have an opportunity to advance this goal. I hope I am right that the clouds are parting instead of gathering.

[Michael Copps served as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from May 2001 to December 2011 and was the FCC's Acting Chairman from January to June 2009. In 2012, former Commissioner Copps joined Common Cause to lead its Media and Democracy Reform Initiative. Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/good-bad-ugly

Teaser:

The good, the bad and the ugly of communications and policy in the US as of July 2021.

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Author:

Michael Copps

Send date:

Tue, 07/13/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 7/12/2021

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Publish Date:

Mon, 07/12/2021

Coverage Type:

Op-Ed

Government & Communications

Digital Divide

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-she…

The American Jobs Plan

benton — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 11:13:02 +0000

The American Jobs Plan is an investment in America that will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country’s infrastructure, and position the United States to out-compete China. Specifically, President Biden’s plan will:

Deliver clean drinking water, a renewed electric grid, and high-speed broadband to all Americans. President Biden’s plan will eliminate all lead pipes and service lines in our drinking water systems, improving the health of our country’s children and communities of color. It will put hundreds of thousands of people to work laying thousands of miles of transmission lines and capping hundreds of thousands of orphan oil and gas wells and abandoned mines. And, it will bring affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to every American, including the more than 35 percent of rural Americans who lack access to broadband at minimally acceptable speeds.

Revitalize America’s digital infrastructure: Generations ago, the federal government recognized that without affordable access to electricity, Americans couldn’t fully participate in modern society and the modern economy. With the 1936 Rural Electrification Act, the federal government made a historic investment in bringing electricity to nearly every home and farm in America, and millions of families and our economy reaped the benefits. Broadband internet is the new electricity. It is necessary for Americans to do their jobs, to participate equally in school learning, health care, and to stay connected. Yet, by one definition, more than 30 million Americans live in areas where there is no broadband infrastructure that provides minimally acceptable speeds. Americans in rural areas and on tribal lands particularly lack adequate access. And, in part because the United States has some of the highest broadband prices among OECD countries, millions of Americans can’t use broadband internet even if the infrastructure exists where they live. In urban areas as well, there is a stark digital divide: a much higher percentage of White families use home broadband internet than Black or Latino families. The last year made painfully clear the cost of these disparities, particularly for students who struggled to connect while learning remotely, compounding learning loss and social isolation for those students.
The President believes we can bring affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to every American through a historic investment of $100 billion. That investment will:

Build high-speed broadband infrastructure to reach 100 percent coverage. The President’s plan prioritizes building “future proof” broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas so that we finally reach 100 percent high-speed broadband coverage. It also prioritizes support for broadband networks owned, operated by, or affiliated with local governments, non-profits, and co-operatives—providers with less pressure to turn profits and with a commitment to serving entire communities. Moreover, it ensures funds are set aside for infrastructure on tribal lands and that tribal nations are consulted in program administration. Along the way, it will create good-paying jobs with labor protections and the right to organize and bargain collectively.
Promote transparency and competition. President Biden’s plan will promote price transparency and competition among internet providers, including by lifting barriers that prevent municipally-owned or affiliated providers and rural electric co-ops from competing on an even playing field with private providers, and requiring internet providers to clearly disclose the prices they charge.
Reduce the cost of broadband internet service and promote more widespread adoption. President Biden believes that building out broadband infrastructure isn’t enough. We also must ensure that every American who wants to can afford high-quality and reliable broadband internet. While the President recognizes that individual subsidies to cover internet costs may be needed in the short term, he believes continually providing subsidies to cover the cost of overpriced internet service is not the right long-term solution for consumers or taxpayers. Americans pay too much for the internet – much more than people in many other countries – and the President is committed to working with Congress to find a solution to reduce internet prices for all Americans, increase adoption in both rural and urban areas, hold providers accountable, and save taxpayer money.

President Biden’s plan invests in rural and Tribal communities, including by providing 100 percent broadband coverage, rebuilding crumbling infrastructure like roads, bridges, and water systems, providing research and development funding to land grant universities, and positioning the U.S. agricultural sector to lead the shift to net-zero emissions while providing new economic opportunities for farmers.

Benton Content:

Teaser:

Broadband is a key part of President Biden's infrastructure plan

Source:

White House

Send date:

Wed, 03/31/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/30/2021

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Wed, 03/31/2021

Coverage Type:

Press Release

Digital Divide

Affordability/Cost/Price

Infrastructure

https://www.benton.org/blog/what-will-fcc-do-next-lifeline

What Will the FCC Do Next with Lifeline?

benton — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 12:09:35 +0000

What constitutes a lifeline in 2021? Is it a phone? A smartphone? A fixed-location broadband connection? Or some combination of all these services? Last week, the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau launched a proceeding seeking public input on a report on the state of the FCC's Lifeline program. The report will have a huge impact on what services are available to Lifeline's low-income participants. In 2016, the FCC directed the Wireline Competition Bureau, by June 30, 2021, to review the Lifeline program and submit a report to the full FCC recommending whether action should be taken to revise its approach to supported services. Beginning December 1, 2021, there will no longer be support for voice-only service, or voice service bundled with a broadband offering that does not meet the applicable minimum service standard for broadband internet access service—or, at least, not unless the FCC acts upon recommendations to do otherwise presented in what it called for in the 2016 decision—the State of the Lifeline Marketplace Report.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

The forthcoming State of the Lifeline Marketplace Report

Source: