NCTA: The Internet & Cable Association President and CEO Michael Powell used an opening session at his industry’s annual tech trade show to launch a full-throated, very libertarian-leaning counter-offensive to the Federal Communications Commission's plan to reinstate net neutrality rules. Powell labeled Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel’s new attempt to reclassify and regulate broadband as a Title II common-carrier service, setting rules preventing ISPs from establishing abusive restrictions and tolls, as an “illusory” effort trying to solve a “fabricated” problem. Powell described the FCC’s approach as being rooted in regulatory solutions for problems that existed with railroads in the 1800s. Powell said the cable industry has no economic incentive to arbitrate who does and who doesn’t have access to its network infrastructure. 

The Federal Communications Commission launched a proceeding designed to explore ways the FCC’s Mapping Broadband Health in America platform could be expanded and enhanced to help better leverage digital health tools to improve maternal care. The FCC seeks comment on issues that will help guide the next phase of this mapping platform and inform associated data analytics work concerning the relationship between broadband and maternal health. This would include future plans to incorporate additional maternal health variables, other relevant data, and functionalities; to assess how best to address data limitations while still protecting privacy and confidentiality; and to ensure that future updates result in improved user experience and actionable insights. In addition, this proceeding will also seek information and comment on current uses of broadband-enabled health technologies, solutions, and services that are available and being used in maternal health care, as well as the range of barriers that prevent access and utilization by childbearing women or women receiving postpartum care. Lastly, it will seek comment on potential actions or activities the Commission could pursue to help improve maternal health outcomes; to reduce maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity rates; and to promote maternal health equity

The Federal Communications Commission kicked off a rulemaking to explore how the universal service high-cost support program can continue funding fixed and mobile broadband services in Alaska—one of the hardest-to-serve areas in the country. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks comment on a number of issues to help the FCC determine the most effective methodologies and uses for future universal service funding for high-cost fixed and mobile services in Alaska. As part of the rulemaking, the FCC will leverage data from the agency’s new and improved broadband coverage map and broadband funding map, which provide a more accurate picture of where service is and is not, and where deployment has already been funded, in Alaska. The FCC also seeks comment to better understand the changes, including technology and the broadband funding landscape, that have occurred in Alaska since 2016. In addition to the rulemaking, the Report and Order makes several administrative modifications to, and clarifications of, FCC rules to improve the administration of the high-cost program. The Report and Order changes provider annual reporting and certification obligations, streamlines processes governing mergers between rate-of-return local exchange carriers, and makes several rule modifications to improve FCC oversight, including increased performance testing reporting, elimination of waiver exceptions for study area boundary changes, and a new notice requirement for carriers relinquishing their Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) designations before state authorities.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducted case studies in three states and interviewed middle-mile operators, last-mile providers, and state officials. GAO also interviewed federal agency officials, academics, and industry participants. GAO assessed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's NTIA middle mile program documentation against recommended practices related to grants management, duplication, and performance management. NTIA  followed all recommended grants management practices, and took steps to ensure program funding did not duplicate other federal funding. However, NTIA did not follow leading practices and federal regulations related to performance management. Leading practices call for performance goals to be quantifiable and the associated measures to have numerical targets. Federal regulations also require agencies issuing a notice of funding opportunity to develop program performance goals and measures during planning and design, and include this information in the funding notice. GAO found NTIA had not developed such goals or measures prior to issuing its funding notice. By not doing so, NTIA missed the opportunity to inform applicants on how they could contribute to the goals during its applicant review and selection process. GAO reported that for two other programs, NTIA also did not develop performance goals and measures during program planning and design as required. By establishing performance measures with specified targets, NTIA can provide Congress with key information on program outcomes. Moreover, by establishing a process to ensure that goals and measures are developed during a program’s planning stages NTIA can better target grant funding that links to desired outcomes. GAO made two recommendations to the NTIA:

1. NTIA should develop performance measures for the middle-mile grant program that align with key attributes of successful performance measures, including ensuring that measures clearly link with stated program goals and have specified targets.
2. NTIA should establish a process to ensure NTIA develops performance goals and measures that align with leading practices for its grant programs during program planning and design and to ensure it includes these goals and measures as part of its future notices of funding opportunities.

Nearly 800 homes and businesses in Greene County (PA) will be able to get high-speed fiber internet for the first time, due to a $5.2 million public–private partnership with broadband provider Kinetic. The project, expected to start in mid-November and be completed in the spring, will provide internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second to eligible homes and business in parts of the townships of Aleppo, Freeport, Gilmore, Perry, Springhill and Wayne. Under the partnership, the county will support the project with $2.5 million through a grant of that amount that it received from the Appalachian Regional Commission. Kinetic will invest $2.7 million and cover any cost overruns. Kinetic plans to lay about 105 miles of optical fiber cable to bring high-speed internet to residences, businesses and schools. Residents and businesses will not need to wait until the project is completed to sign up for the service. They will be able to sign up as soon as the optical fiber reaches their building.

The major online platforms are breaking up with news. Some executives of the largest tech companies, like Adam Mosseri at Instagram, have said in no uncertain terms that hosting news on their sites can often be more trouble than it is worth because it generates polarized debates. Others, like Elon Musk, the owner of X, have expressed disdain for the mainstream press. Publishers seem resigned to the idea that traffic from the big tech companies will not return to what it once was. Even in the long-fractious relationship between publishers and tech platforms, the latest rift stands out—and the consequences for the news industry are stark. Many news companies have struggled to survive after the tech companies threw the industry’s business model into upheaval more than a decade ago. One lifeline was the traffic—and, by extension, advertising—that came from sites like Facebook and Twitter. Now that traffic is disappearing. Top news sites got about 11.5 percent of their web traffic in the United States from social networks in September 2020, according to Similarweb, a data and analytics company. By September 2023, it was down to 6.5 percent.