Benton Institute for Broadband & Society - Patience Haggin

The FCC Restores Net Neutrality—What That Means

zwalker@benton.org — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 17:15:48 +0000

Net neutrality, a set of policies designed to prevent internet-service providers from playing favorites among the websites they carry, is coming back. In a vote on April 25 the Federal Communications Commission classified internet service as a public utility. The definition is part of a new framework the FCC will use to regulate broadband networks. Net-neutrality rules typically bar internet-service providers from assigning priority to certain web traffic or creating so-called fast lanes for certain websites. They also restrict providers from throttling, or slowing down, traffic to websites that don’t pay up. Proponents say that the guardrails are critical to ensuring internet users have equal access to digital content and that deep-pocketed websites aren’t given priority over smaller ones. Opponents of net neutrality say the rules are unnecessary and allege that the FCC is using the policy to expand its regulatory remit.

Benton Content:

https://www.wsj.com/business/telecom/net-neutrality-fcc-internet-explained-29103…

Teaser:

Agency plans to start regulating internet service like a public utility, bringing back rules that ban ‘fast lanes’ for certain websites

Source:

Wall Street Journal

Author:

Patience Haggin

Send date:

Fri, 04/26/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 4/25/2024

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Thu, 04/25/2024

Coverage Type:

Reporting

Digital Content

Federal Agency

Federal Communications Commission

Internet/Broadband

Regulatory classification

Level of Government

Federal

Network Neutrality

How One Company Hoovered Up $3 Billion in Broadband Subsidies

zwalker@benton.org — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 15:14:45 +0000

The federal government has spent $12.82 billion in the last two years helping low-income households pay for internet service. Almost a quarter of it has gone to one company. Charter Communications received $3.01 billion through the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a larger slice than any of its competitors. Charter’s use of the program has come to the attention of regulators, who are examining some of its practices. At least two aspects of Charter’s approach to the ACP set it apart from its competitors. Charter pushed to sign up not only new customers for the government-subsidized plans, but also many of its existing subscribers. Existing subscribers who meet the qualifications are eligible for the program, and by law providers must promote it in their service area and tell customers about it when they renew a subscription, although some critics question if this is consistent with the stated goals of the ACP. Another distinctive piece of Charter’s strategy is the way it verifies customers’ eligibility. Many companies use the government-provided “National Verifier,” but they can also use their own process. Charter has primarily used an in-house method. In May 2023, the Federal Communications Commission sent a public letter to Charter asking the company to to double-check customers’ eligibility using the National Verifier.

Benton Content:

https://www.wsj.com/business/telecom/charter-internet-low-income-funding-037a953…

Teaser:

Charter received far more of funding for low-income Americans to get internet service than any other company

Source:

Wall Street Journal

Author:

Ryan Tracy

Patience Haggin

Send date:

Fri, 01/26/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 1/25/2024

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Thu, 01/25/2024

Coverage Type:

Reporting

Digital Divide

Federal Agency

Federal Communications Commission

Federal Broadband Programs

Affordable Connectivity Program (was Emergency Broadband Benefit Program)

Internet/Broadband

Affordability/Cost/Price

Adoption

Legislation

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Level of Government

Federal

Marginalized Populations

Low-income

Telecommunication

Cable Companies and Mobile Carriers Battle Over Fixed Wireless Internet

benton — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 11:40:36 +0000

Consumers increasingly are ditching traditional broadband plans for more-affordable 5G fixed-wireless internet service. In response, cable companies say they may be losing some battles, but in the end they’ll win the war—and that customers who have switched will return. Since 2018, wireless carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile US have used the excess capacity on their fifth-generation cellular networks to lure broadband-internet subscribers away with 5G fixed-wireless plans that in some cases can cost half of what a cable plan does. As cable companies bleed subscribers to fixed wireless, they’ve harped on the cheaper service’s shortcomings in public rhetoric and TV commercials, in a phone-versus-cable tit-for-tat. With fixed-wireless plans, a subscriber uses an in-home receiver to pick up signals from a cell tower. A number of factors can hurt the web speeds, including network congestion, the receiver’s distance from the cell tower and obstacles such as trees between the receiver and the tower. Both T-Mobile and Verizon acknowledge these limitations on their websites.

Benton Content:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cable-companies-mobile-carriers-battle-fixed-wirele…

Teaser:

Comcast and Charter Communications have lost customers to their less-expensive rival plans. But they insist customers will return to broadband.

Source:

Wall Street Journal

Author:

Patience Haggin

Will Feuer

Send date:

Thu, 04/27/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 4/26/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Thu, 04/27/2023

Coverage Type:

Reporting

Internet/Broadband

Infrastructure

Competition/Antitrust

Wireless Telecommunications

Wireless Internet

Political Groups Track Protesters’ Cellphone Data

benton — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 11:35:48 +0000

The protests continuing around the country are historic displays of social action. For political operatives, the mass gatherings are also a unique opportunity to harvest data on potential voters. Advocacy and voter-registration groups are gathering a trove of data from protests by tracking the cellphones of participants and sending them messages about registering to vote or taking other actions. The tactics, which one user called “deeply spooky yet extremely helpful,” are the latest example of ways political groups are using cellphone data to target voters. Tracking individuals through location data gathered by apps on their phones, often referred to as geofencing, has been used by businesses for years and has more recently caught on among political groups. That data allows firms to reach people’s phones with ads or other messaging—in real-time or later—without identifying individuals, proponents say. Political groups say the protests following the killing of George Floyd while in police custody, along with earlier lockdown protests, are opening up fresh opportunities to reach people who may not be registered to vote or weren’t previously politically active.

Benton Content:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-political-groups-are-harvesting-data-from-prote…

Teaser:

"Deeply spooky yet extremely helpful"

Source:

Wall Street Journal

Author:

Emily Glazer

Patience Haggin

Send date:

Mon, 06/15/2020

Daily Digest: