Benton Institute for Broadband & Society - Editorial

Author:

https://www.benton.org/blog/get-your-acp

Send date:

Tue, 08/01/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 7/31/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Tue, 08/01/2023

Coverage Type:

Editorial

Get Your ACP

benton — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 11:18:14 +0000

We're just a few days from Juneteenth, a holiday that reminds us of the critical connection between communications and equity. June 19 commemorates the day in 1865 when slaves in Texas first learned about the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Cut off from communications, slaves in Texas were deprived news of their freedom for over two and a half years. One hundred and fifty-seven years later, we can still see how lack of access to communications holds back individuals, families, and communities. As Congress found in the new Infrastructure Law, access to affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband is essential to full participation in modern life in the United States. Although these benefits should be broadly enjoyed by all, the digital divide disproportionately affects communities of color, lower-income areas, and rural areas. Affordability is a major barrier to broadband adoption. The good news is that Congress has set aside more than $14 billion to address broadband affordability for low-income households.

Adrianne B. Furniss is the Executive Director of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

In 2022 as in 1865, too many people are still disadvantaged in part because lack of access to communications isolates them.

Source:

Author:

Send date:

Tue, 06/14/2022

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 6/13/2022

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Tue, 06/14/2022

Coverage Type:

https://www.benton.org/blog/happy-belated-birthday-andrew-jay-schwartzman

Happy Belated Birthday, Andrew Jay Schwartzman

benton — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 11:36:03 +0000

At our 40th Anniversary celebration on April 6, we were delighted to honor Andrew Jay Schwartzman and celebrate his 75th birthday. If you are not familiar with Andy's work, he is known to his friends, colleagues, and mentees as the “dean” of the public interest communications bar—someone who has devoted his professional life to making the communications landscape better for us all. Andy is the recent winner of the James Wilson Award, the highest honor the University of Pennsylvania Law Alumni Society bestows on its graduates—which, by coincidence, was timed perfectly to his 50^th law school reunion. The James Wilson Award is presented each year to a member of the alumni community in honor of a lifetime of service in the profession. Andy's career has been long and impactful. Happy birthday, Andy. We are so thankful for all you have done to advance public interest communications policy—and so excited that we can continue to work together to achieve broadband’s full promise and potential.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

At our 40th Anniversary celebration on April 6, we were delighted to honor Andrew Jay Schwartzman and celebrate his 75th birthday.

Source:

Author:

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

Send date:

Thu, 04/28/2022

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 4/26/2022

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Wed, 04/27/2022

Coverage Type:

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

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.

Source:

Author:

Send date:

Thu, 09/23/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 9/22/2021

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Wed, 09/22/2021

Coverage Type:

Editorial

Upcoming policy issue

Lifeline/Low-Income Consumers

Universal Service Fund

Headlines Specific Topic:

Coronavirus and Connectivity

Broadband Prices are Soaring. Competition is the Answer

benton — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 16:28:11 +0000

Despite clear evidence to the contrary, lobbyists have long claimed that U.S. broadband is extremely competitive and incredibly affordable. As the Biden administration pushes a bold new broadband plan to drive competition in the broadband marketplace, lobbyists are once again trying to pretend there’s no real problem that needs fixing. To be clear, Americans pay some of the highest prices for broadband in the developed world, thanks to limited competition and regional monopolization. After decades of industry consolidation, heavy lobbying, and the steady erosion of both competition and government oversight, the results are obvious: high prices, spotty coverage, comparatively slower speeds, and statistically terrible customer service. President Joe Biden’s broadband plan hopes to fix this problem by driving additional competition to market, whether that competition comes from new private sector upstarts, innovative new technologies, or the hard work of local communities. An additional $100 billion in broadband funding also aims to help those stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide.

[Kevin Taglang is the Executive Editor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/broadband-prices-are-soaring-competition-answer

Teaser:

Let’s stop pretending. The lack of broadband competition is a major problem.

Source:

Author:

Kevin Taglang

Send date:

Mon, 05/03/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 4/30/2021

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Fri, 04/30/2021

Coverage Type:

Competition/Antitrust

Municipal Networks

https://www.benton.org/blog/democracy-unity-broadband

On Democracy, Unity, & Broadband

benton — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 12:32:14 +0000

Probably like you, I made sure to make time to watch the Inauguration on January 20. Whenever a President is sworn in, his Inauguration speech sets the tone for his entire Administration. On January 20, I heard a celebration of democracy – and a call that, in the midst of the pandemic, economic disparity, racial inequity, and a climate in crisis, “unity is our path forward.” In our American democracy, we are called upon to inform ourselves, form our own opinions, and contribute to the debate so we can decide together what is best for our communities and our nation. The call for unity requires us to accept that there are differences, to reach the end of a debate, and to accept the decisions made in our democratic process. E pluribus unum. Although we have many voices, we remain one. Without that commitment to each other, our democracy dies, our nation fails. At the Benton Institute, we are not for broadband for broadband’s stake. We see it as the infrastructure of opportunity—an essential tool to ensure a thriving democracy. Inspired by the Inaugural and with Benton’s overarching goal in mind, I offer today our recommendations to ensure that everyone in the U.S. can use High-Performance Broadband. In the spirit of community, we share today not just Benton’s recommendations to bring broadband to all, but the great suggestions from groups around the country that have informed our thinking.

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

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

We see broadband as the infrastructure of opportunity—an essential tool to ensure a thriving democracy.

Source:

Author:

Send date:

Wed, 01/27/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 1/26/2021

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Wed, 01/27/2021

Coverage Type:

Competition/Antitrust

Data & Mapping

Infrastructure

https://www.benton.org/blog/broadbands-role-building-just-society

Universal Service Fund

Broadband’s Role in Building a Just Society

benton — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 10:57:03 +0000

Perhaps there’s no better day to contemplate the critical connection between communications and equity than Juneteenth. June 19 commemorates the day in 1865 when slaves in Texas first learned about the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Cut off from communications, slaves in Texas were deprived news of their freedom for over two and a half years. In our time when information travels at the speed of the internet, it is almost inconceivable that anyone could be denied information so vital to their well-being for so long. But in ways more subtle but nevertheless insidious, too many people lack access to the essential communications tool of the 21^st century.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

As we recover from the health and economic crises of 2020, as we challenge ourselves to make our union more perfect and just, let us ensure that the essential communications tool of the 21^st century is finally available and affordable for all.

Source:

Author:

https://www.benton.org/blog/introducing-benton-institute-broadband-society

Send date:

Fri, 06/19/2020

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 6/18/2020

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Fri, 06/19/2020

Coverage Type:

Introducing the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Robbie McBeath — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 11:28:30 +0000

Seventy-five years ago, in October 1944, my grandfather, William Benton, delivered a clarion call in the pages of Forbes magazine by articulating a forward-looking agenda on behalf of a coalition of business leaders (“the capitalists who cared enough about the system to save it”) to deliver a more peaceful and prosperous American future in the (then-expected) wake of winning World War II. William Benton recognized that American progress rested on the connection between economic opportunity and democracy. “[A] free market open to the development of new, independent enterprises will continue to provide an economic basis for political freedom.” My grandfather created the Benton Foundation to address tough and seemingly unsolvable problems in the field of communications — with a focus on the projects that would have the greatest impact on democracy. It is in this tradition that now the Benton Foundation becomes the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, which continues to work to bring open, affordable, High-Performance Broadband to all people in the United States — to ensure a thriving democracy and lift our free society.

In the coming weeks, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society will offer a new vision and agenda for action, Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s. Over the past year, we've collected the lessons of communities, public-interest advocates, government officials, and industry experts who are working to extend broadband's reach. Our aim is to combine these lessons into a national broadband agenda for the next decade. Over the next year, we will be enlisting leaders from around the country in an ongoing discussion on how public policy can close the digital divide and extend digital opportunity everywhere.

Please join us in this conversation.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

Teaser:

My grandfather created the Benton Foundation to address tough and seemingly unsolvable problems in the field of communications — with a focus on the projects that would have the greatest impact on democracy. It is in this tradition that now the Benton Foundation becomes the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, which continues to work to bring open, affordable, High-Performance Broadband to all people in the United States — to ensure a thriving democracy and lift our free society.

Source:

Author:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/all-americans-should-be-able-to-use-the-…

Send date:

Tue, 09/17/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 9/16/2019

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Mon, 09/16/2019

Coverage Type:

Headlines Specific Topic:

Benton Foundation

All Americans should be able to use the Internet. How do we get there?

benton — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 11:34:43 +0000

It's easy to say all Americans should be able to use the Internet in the 21st century, which is probably why several leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination have done just that. It’s much harder to say how to get there. Almost everyone, even on both sides of the aisle in Congress, seems able to agree on the need to fix the maps first. That’s because the Federal Communications Commission relies on coverage reports from industry, and carriers have incentive to exaggerate their reach. The system also marks areas as large as hundreds of square miles as serviced even when only a single household has access, and companies are instructed to indicate where they could easily offer broadband rather than where consumers actually use it. All that needs to change. The next question is what type of technology can best solve the digital divide. Fiber is fast, powerful and reliable. It’s also what researchers call “future-proof” — unlikely to become outdated and even likely to outlast the electronics that run on it today. But fiber is also expensive, which is why some propose supporting a mix of methods, from satellites to unused spectrum, for hooking people up as speedily and cheaply as possible. Then there’s the who. Large providers have channeled existing grants into offering service at inadequate speeds. Shifting the focus to local actors is smart — and state rules that prohibit towns and counties from building their own networks need to go. But the government may get more bang for every buck by upping requirements and accountability for everyone rather than keeping some out altogether.

Benton Content:

Teaser:

It’s much harder to say how to get there.

Source:

Washington Post

Author:

Editorial staff

Send date:

Mon, 08/12/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 8/9/2019

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Mon, 08/12/2019

Coverage Type:

Universal Service Fund

Stop Fanning The Flames

Robbie McBeath — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 23:46:23 +0000

The power of communication and the exchange of ideas were starkly brought home recently as news of bombs being delivered to Americans’ homes and businesses, and the murder of worshipers in Pittsburgh dominated headlines everywhere. President Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies appear to be actively engaged in a feedback loop with extremists who participate in the darkest online forums. By empowering the views found there, they condone a widening of the boundaries of acceptable speech and turn a blind eye to bigotry, xenophobia, and hate. For each of us, there’s a responsibility to hold our leaders accountable. Are they dampening the flames or fanning them? Are they using extinguishers – or matches? If we want to return to the mutual good faith and collaborative spirit that characterize a healthy democracy, we need leaders who will use their positions of power and influence to tone down the rancor and smother the kind of speech that incited the extremism and violence that led to the tragedies of Charleston and Pittsburgh.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://benton.org/blog/stop-fanning-flames

Teaser:

President Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies appear to be actively engaged in a feedback loop with extremists who participate in the darkest online forums.

Source:

Benton Foundation

Author: