Showing archive for: “Digital Divide”
Gomez Confirmed to FCC: Here Comes Net Neutrality, But First…
The U.S. Senate moved yesterday in a 55-43 vote to confirm Anna Gomez to the Federal Communications Commission. Her confirmation breaks a partisan deadlock at the agency that has been in place since the beginning of the Biden administration, when Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel vacated her seat to become FCC chair. The commission now has a ... Gomez Confirmed to FCC: Here Comes Net Neutrality, But First…
ACP Spends More Money While Running Out of Money; BEAD Rules Run Amok
If this is what a summer slowdown looks like in telecom policy world, then autumn is going to be a real humdinger. FCC Announces More Spending for ACP Outreach Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced government agencies and nonprofits in 11 states and territories will receive an additional $4.3 million to promote the ... ACP Spends More Money While Running Out of Money; BEAD Rules Run Amok
Red Tape and Headaches Plague BEAD Rollout
While the dog days of August have sent many people to the pool to cool off, the Telecom Hootenanny dance floor is heating up. We’ve got hiccups in BEAD deployment, a former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) member urging the agency to free-up 12 GHz spectrum for fixed wireless, and another former FCC commissioner urging a ... Red Tape and Headaches Plague BEAD Rollout
Broadband Deployment, Pole Attachments, & the Competition Economics of Rural-Electric Co-ops
In our recent issue brief, Geoffrey Manne, Kristian Stout, and I considered the antitrust economics of state-owned enterprises—specifically the local power companies (LPCs) that are government-owned under the authority of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). While we noted that electricity cooperatives (co-ops) do not receive antitrust immunities and could therefore be subject to antitrust enforcement, we ... Broadband Deployment, Pole Attachments, & the Competition Economics of Rural-Electric Co-ops
Will the USF Survive the 5th Circuit?
The Telecom Hootenanny is back from a little summer break. As they say on AM radio: “If you miss a little, you miss a lot.” So rather than trying to catch up, let’s focus on some of the latest news from the telecom dancefloor. For this edition of the Hootenanny: we’ve got a big-time challenge ... Will the USF Survive the 5th Circuit?
While Congress Delays, the Task Force Will Play
With the first day of summer less than a week away and political silly season just around the corner, we don’t have much time for hootenannies. Congress needs to channel the wisdom of Jerry Reed, who noted: “We’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there.” In early March, Congress ... While Congress Delays, the Task Force Will Play
Dynamic Competition Proves There Is No Captive Audience: 10 Years, 10G, and YouTube TV
In Susan Crawford’s 2013 book “Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age,” the Harvard Law School professor argued that the U.S. telecommunications industry had become dominated by a few powerful companies, leading to limited competition and negative consequences for consumers, especially for broadband internet. Crawford’s ire was focused particularly ... Dynamic Competition Proves There Is No Captive Audience: 10 Years, 10G, and YouTube TV
To Infinity and Beyond: The New Broadband Map Has Landed!
Announced with the sort of breathless press release one might expect for the launch of a new product like Waystar Royco’s Living+, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has gone into full-blown spin mode over its latest broadband map. This is, to be clear, the map that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will use ... To Infinity and Beyond: The New Broadband Map Has Landed!
Whatcha Gonna Do When the Well Runs Dry?
As the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations convenes this morning for a hearing on overseeing federal funds for broadband deployment, it bears mention that one of the largest U.S. broadband-subsidy programs is actually likely run out of money within the next year. Writing in Forbes, Roslyn Layton observes of the Affordable Connectivity Program ... Whatcha Gonna Do When the Well Runs Dry?
To Close the Digital Divide, Broadband Infrastructure Funds Must Be Spent Efficiently
States seeking broadband-deployment grants under the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program created by last year’s infrastructure bill now have some guidance as to what will be required of them, with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issuing details last week in a new notice of funding opportunity (NOFO). All things considered, ... To Close the Digital Divide, Broadband Infrastructure Funds Must Be Spent Efficiently
The FTC’s Privacy Report Fails to Justify Asymmetric Regulation of ISPs
Others already have noted that the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recently released 6(b) report on the privacy practices of Internet service providers (ISPs) fails to comprehend that widespread adoption of privacy-enabling technology—in particular, Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) and DNS over HTTPS (DoH), but also the use of virtual private networks (VPNs)—largely precludes ISPs from ... The FTC’s Privacy Report Fails to Justify Asymmetric Regulation of ISPs
The BIF Offers a Good First Step for Broadband, but the Devil Will Be in the Details
Capping months of inter-chamber legislative wrangling, President Joe Biden on Nov. 15 signed the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (also known as the bipartisan infrastructure framework, or BIF), which sets aside $65 billion of federal funding for broadband projects. While there is much to praise about the package’s focus on broadband deployment and ... The BIF Offers a Good First Step for Broadband, but the Devil Will Be in the Details
