The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and US Chamber of Commerce are standing strongly behind the Federal Communications Commission's deregulation of internet access in the 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order. In an amicus (friend of the court) brief, NAM and the chamber, who are friends of the FCC in this case, said that with internet-driven tech at "the heart" of modern manufacturing the FCC's decision to roll back those "onerous" rules was a victory for competition. "The previous administration’s decision to regulate the internet with a more than 70-year-old law designed to govern the use of rotary telephones only burdened manufacturers with uncertainty," said NAM senior VP and general counsel Linda Kelly. "We are confident the court will agree that the FCC acted within the law to end the Obama-era FCC’s heavy-handed approach that was neither appropriate nor necessary for the rapidly evolving, highly competitive broadband market.”

Broadband investment rebounded in 2017, as a series of positive consumer and innovation policies and a pro-growth regulatory approach helped reverse the industry’s previous spending pullback, according to new research released by USTelecom. USTelecom’s annual broadband capital expenditure report shows broadband provider capital expenditures grew to $76.3 billion in 2017, compared to $74.8 billion in 2016, an increase of $1.5 billion.

The 2017 increase comes after a two-year decline during which annual broadband capital expenditures fell a total of $3.2 billion, from $78.0 billion in 2014 to $74.8 billion in 2016. This spending dip began when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved to impose common carrier regulatory classification—commonly known as Title II—on broadband providers in 2015. Growth returned after a series of pro-investment steps taken by the FCC and Congress, including the Restoring Internet Freedom Order, the tech transition order and tax reform. While many factors are at play, the parallel shifts in policy and capex suggest that policy expectations played a role, warranting additional analysis.

Here's five important trends that are driving broadband access and digital inclusion in the United States. Underlying these trends is the drive to streamline regulation and create the incentive for broadband infrastructure investment.

1. Digital Inclusion Planning. More governments and coalitions are creating city-wide, regional and state-wide broadband and digital inclusion planning programs.  Many of these plans include dedicated staff, grant programs, and outcome-based measurement.
2. Program Integration.  Federal agencies understand that broadband access and digital literacy are important aspects of their missions, so they are including broadband and digital inclusion as “eligible expenses” in government programs and funding streams.
3. Library Modernization. Libraries are community hubs for digital access, research, and content creation. Partnering with libraries and other community-based nonprofits is a great way for digital inclusion coalitions to reach people where they live and work.
4. Performance Measurement.  Part and parcel with the trend in structured planning, we also see a trend in measuring program performance through data collection and research. Measurement is important at the beginning of a program to assess gaps and needs and to size up assets and opportunities, but it is also essential as programs develop and change.
5. Leveraging Assets.  Digital inclusion relies on community investment in broadband infrastructure. 

The Competitive Carriers Association report “Assessment of the Economic Impact of The Airwaves Act" estimates that at least $1.5 billion could be raised for rural wireless in upcoming auctions of spectrum in the 24 GHz and 28 GHz bands, with additional funding to come from other auctions. The bill, sponsored by Sen Cory Gardner (R-CO), would require the Federal Communications Commission to complete auctions during each of the next three calendar years and to dedicate 10% of auction proceeds toward rural wireless. According to them, the issue is that the 28 GHz spectrum auction will not cover the entire U.S. but only 61.7% of the land mass and 23.7% of the population. The report authors estimate that Auction 101 is likely to generate between $41 million and $1.1 billion, with the most likely scenario being about $561 million. Auction 102 is expected to generate between $334 million and $27.5 billion, with $14 billion being the most likely scenario.

The Federal Communications Commission is planning to reduce its reimbursement for hearing-impaired phone services that display a call’s text. The FCC could adopt a change in its reimbursement formula within 12 months, it said in the Trump administration’s fall regulatory agenda. The FCC reimburses telecom service providers for hearing- and speech-impaired telephone services. Agency officials, though, are worried that providers are marketing captioned phone services to people who could use cheaper methods, such as amplifying phones, in order to receive larger reimbursements.

Twitter’s release of millions of tweets relating to foreign influence campaigns on the platform created a treasure trove of data for journalists and researchers to mine through. The information sheds light on the vast, yearslong campaign to sow discord and influence US politics, not only by Russia’s infamous Internet Research Agency but by accounts tied to Iran as well. New Knowledge Research Director Renee DiResta, whose group tracks disinformation and analyzed Twitter’s latest batch of data, pointed to an “evolution over time” by the IRA, which she said shifted from focusing on “more-domestically focused” matters in Russia to US politics in early 2015. But even after the shift, a majority of the IRA posts were targeted not directly at influencing American elections but rather at hot-button political topics, especially race. “The election was heating up but at the same time the overwhelming majority of the content … focused on race,” she said. And the evolution has continued. DiResta said foreign activity is “progressing to rely on local news” over “canonical” national outlets. She suggested this tactic could be because Americans hold greater trust in local outlets. DiResta said the findings pointed to a significant difference in how Russian trolls approached Twitter as opposed to Facebook. “Their Twitter operation was much more opportunistic than their Facebook operation,” she said. On Facebook, trolls sought to foster “in-group communities,” the researcher argued, while on Twitter, where there are no group pages, there was “a far broader collection of topics” that were more responsive to trends.

The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, another group that dug into the data, found that the IRA’s goals spanned from preventing Hillary Clinton’s victory to also “dividing polarized online communities in the US, unifying support for Russia’s international interests, and breaking down trust in US institutions.” One other consistent theme: suppressing the African-American vote. “A vote for Jill Stein is not a wasted vote” was a common refrain, according to DiResta. Other efforts focused on spreading disinformation about voting to minorities, she added.