Wednesday, June 14, 2023
Headlines Daily Digest
Today: Closing the Digital Divide: The Affordable Connectivity Program on the Ground and in DC
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A Look at Louisiana's Draft Digital Equity Plan
NTIA Receives More Than 250 Comments to Inform Digital Equity Act Programs
Broadband Funding
Broadband Service
State/Local Initiatives
Ownership
Platforms/AI
Emergency Communications
Stories From Abroad
Broadband Funding
To further the development of the upcoming phases of the Digital Equity Act, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a Request for Comment on March 2, 2023. The comment window closed on May 1, 2023, and a wide range of stakeholders from across the country submitted 252 written submissions. NTIA also hosted four public listening sessions reaching more than 400 stakeholders to obtain responses from those who were unable to provide written comments. The comments and listening sessions will help inform the design and implementation of the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program and the $1.25 billion Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program. All written comments received are available on regulations.gov. By incorporating diverse perspectives, NTIA can ensure that these programs truly meet the needs of those most impacted by a lack of connection, and that our work will make meaningful progress toward achieving digital equity.
Biden-Harris Administration Awards Nearly $1.25 Million to the US Virgin Islands for ‘Internet for All’ Planning Grant
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) granted the US Virgin Islands (USVI) its first “Internet for All” grants for deploying high-speed Internet networks and developing digital skills training programs under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All initiative. USVI is receiving $1.25 million in funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to plan for the deployment and adoption of affordable, equitable, and reliable high-speed internet service throughout the territory. USVI will receive $1,249,952.00 from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to fund various activities including:
- Increasing capacity of a broadband office that oversees broadband programs and deployment;
- Supporting the development of a Five-Year Action plan to close the digital divide and ensure every Virgin Islander can participate in online educational offerings, access telehealth care, and thrive in the digital economy;
- Research and data collection to identify unserved and underserved locations as well as catalogue broadband adoption, affordability, equity, and access to better understand barriers to adoption;
- Providing technical assistance to potential subgrantees, including through workshops and events.
USVI will receive $150,000 from the Digital Equity Act to fund various activities to support closing the digital equity gap including:
- The development of a Territory Digital Equity Plan that will benefit USVI and its principally unserved and underserved covered populations;
- Conducting data collection and analysis, digital inclusion asset mapping and stakeholder engagement;
- Staff recruitment and development.
One of the key questions around the happiest and unhappiest home internet counties is where they are and what the driver is behind the happiness and unhappiness. Five of the ten unhappiest and five of the ten happiest counties are in states that are considered “Republican” and “Democratic”, respectively. Neither party’s approach to how they interact with home internet providers has had an impact on the distribution of the ten happiest and unhappiest counties. Interestingly, all the counties where the unhappiest home broadband customers are residing are rural counties with one exception: Indian River County (FL), the home of Vero Beach. Nine of the ten happiest counties are rural. In six of the ten happiest counties, coops are active, but not in the happiest broadband county, Mercer County (WV). The mere presence of coops is providing better services, as the feedback we receive from customers ranges from terrific to terrible. Fiber or Cable coverage is also not playing a determining role. The poster child for municipal broadband, Chattanooga (TN), comes in as the 9th happiest home internet place in the country.
The latest Customer Satisfaction Index is out from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which measures the public satisfaction of a wide range of US industries and institutions. The survey this year continued to show that the public has a poor opinion of internet service providers (ISP). As a group, ISPs had an average ACSI annual rating of 68. The only industry with a lower rating is gas stations at 65. Subscription TV had an average rating of 69, and the US Post Office had a rating of 70. But there is some interesting good news for some ISPs. Companies serving customers with fiber rated higher with the public than other ISPs, including cable companies using coaxial networks. Consider the following table that shows the 2023 ranking for fiber and non-fiber ISPs. For companies that offer both fiber and another technology, customers served by fiber liked an ISP more than non-fiber customers. Fiber technical performance should be consistent regardless of the ISP, so the difference in rankings between fiber providers has to be related to customer service and the other non-technical aspects of being an ISP.
As states act to capitalize on federal broadband funding, Louisiana has been leading the way. It was the first state to receive federal approval for broadband funding from the American Rescue Plan Act's Capital Projects Fund and the first to be awarded planning grants from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Louisiana continues to lead the way on digital equity planning; last month, the Louisiana Office of Broadband Development & Connectivity (known as Connect Louisiana or ConnectLA) released a draft digital equity plan for the state and is seeking public reaction to it. Here we look at the current state of digital equity in the state as well as Louisiana's vision for digital equity.
Governor Brian P. Kemp (R-GA) committed nearly $15 million in preliminary grant awards for broadband internet expansion through the second round of the Capital Projects Fund (CPF) Grant Program. These awards will improve connectivity for communities, households, businesses, and anchor institutions in four Georgia counties. When combined with significant capital matches from the awardees, almost $30 million will be invested to serve over 3,500 locations in areas most in need of high-speed internet access. The county awardees are as follows:
- Calhoun County, Windstream, 1,425 locations, $6,320,693.00;
- Echols County, Windstream, 420 locations, $1,195,703.00;
- Miller County, City of Colquitt, 1,357 locations, $6,281,732.72;
- Webster County, Windstream, 299 locations, $985,147.00.
Private equity firm Friedman Capital is looking to scoop up as many as 20 small broadband providers across the Southeastern Sunbelt region in the US, aiming to build a sizable competitor capable of bringing better broadband to parts of the country experiencing rapid population growth. Friedman Capital launched a new strategic investment fund to fuel its plan, aiming to secure $250 million in capital commitments. The company is targeting deals with fiber and fixed wireless providers in what it calls “SEC country”—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
Stories From Abroad
European Commission sends Statement of Objections to Google over abusive practices in online advertising technology
The European Commission has informed Google of its preliminary view that the company breached EU antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology industry (‘adtech'). The European Commission takes issue with Google favouring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers. The European Commission preliminarily finds that, since at least 2014, Google abused its dominant positions by:
- Favouring its own ad exchange AdX in the ad selection auction run by its dominant publisher ad server DFP by, for example, informing AdX in advance of the value of the best bid from competitors which it had to beat to win the auction.
- Favouring its ad exchange AdX in the way its ad buying tools Google Ads and DV360 place bids on ad exchanges. For example, Google Ads was avoiding competing ad exchanges and mainly placing bids on AdX, thus making it the most attractive ad exchange.
The European Commission is concerned that Google's allegedly intentional conducts aimed at giving AdX a competitive advantage and may have foreclosed rival ad exchanges. This would have reinforced Google's AdX central role in the adtech supply chain and Google's ability to charge a high fee for its service. If confirmed, those conducts would infringe Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU') that prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position.
Nearly 1.4 million kilometers (870,000 miles) of metal-encased fiber crisscrosses the world’s oceans, speeding internet traffic seamlessly around the globe. The supply and installation of these cables have been dominated by companies from France, the US and Japan. The Chinese government started successfully penetrating the global market, but consecutive US administrations have since managed to freeze China out of large swathes of it. This was ostensibly because of concerns of espionage and worries about what Beijing might do to disrupt strategic assets operated by Chinese companies in the event of a conflict. Despite being routinely blocked from international subsea cable projects involving US investment, Chinese companies have adapted by building international cables for China and many of its allied nations. This has raised fears of a dangerous division in who owns and manages the infrastructure underpinning the global web. But US efforts to exclude Chinese companies from the world’s internet backbone are mired in difficulties. Even as the US administration wages its fiber optic war against Beijing, vessels owned and manned by China are still undertaking complex repair work on US-owned fiber lines, said those with direct knowledge of such operations.
Collectively, we have come a long way together since the early days of [the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers] ICANN. In fact, this year marks the 25th anniversary of ICANN. As someone who was around for those early days, it’s amazing to think about how much the Internet has changed. When ICANN began in 1998, there were less than 150 million people on the Internet. Now, there are roughly 5 billion. The Internet continues to work properly for people worldwide because of the technical and policy coordination that happens at ICANN. This is a testament to the success of the multistakeholder system of Internet governance. Multistakeholder processes can sometimes be slow-going. Their outcomes are hard earned. They incorporate the views and expertise of the technical community, industry, and civil society, alongside governments. But that’s a feature, not a bug: The products of multistakeholder cooperation are far more durable for the global Internet than top-down regulation.It is more important than ever that we commit to this multistakeholder approach: People of good faith, from diverse perspectives, coming together in the spirit of collegiality to solve problems of common interest. It is not an exaggeration to say the Internet would not exist without it. The Internet we want – one that enables fundamental freedoms and promotes innovation – depends on the success of the multistakeholder approach at work at places like ICANN.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org), Grace Tepper (grace AT benton DOT org), and David L. Clay II (dclay AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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