Daily Digest 7/12/2018 (FCC's August Agenda)

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the FCC will vote in its Aug 2 meeting to conduct a Nov 2018 auction of spectrum in the 28 gigahertz band, with a subsequent 24 GHz band auction soon afterwards.  These so-called high-band spectrum swaths are necessary for wireless providers and other tech players because, even though they travel shorter distances than other spectrum, they can deliver more data and traffic more quickly. 5G networks will be created using a combination of high-band, along with low-band and mid-band spectrum, which can travel farther but handle less data at slower speeds. Each of the major wireless carriers has some spectrum it plans to use for 5G trials and deployment. But not much high-band spectrum has been made available up until now, with Verizon holding the most. In the second half of 2019, the FCC will hold an additional high-band spectrum auction of the 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz bands.

The cost to deploy fiber to unserved US rural areas is about $61 billion, said Jim Stegeman, president of CostQuest Associates, an economic consultancy that specializes in telecommunication. CostQuest created the cost model used to determine broadband deployment costs for the Connect America Fund (CAF) subsidy program. The $61 billion estimated cost to deploy fiber to unserved U.S. rural areas is based on deploying GPON fiber-to-the-premises technology and does not include ongoing operational costs. Stegeman is the co-author, along with Steve G. Parsons, president of Parsons Applied Economics, of a new white paper intended to educate readers about the need for subsidies for rural broadband. Stegeman and Parsons estimate that without subsidies, service providers throughout a large portion of the US would have to charge more than $70 a month for broadband service, including a substantial number that would have to charge more than $200 a month. 

Google’s efforts to build delivery drones and internet-beaming balloons are no longer just science projects. Both ventures are becoming their own independent businesses within Alphabet, the technology conglomerate that owns Google and now 13 other units. Their so-called graduation from Alphabet’s research lab, X, means the delivery-drone and balloon-internet teams may now be on a path to soon offer commercial services and earn revenue. The delivery-drone unit, named Wing, has built 11-pound drones with fixed wings for gliding to destinations and 12 rotors for hovering over homes while winching down deliveries. Wing tested the aircraft in Australia in 2017, delivering burritos and medicine to customers who ordered the items on a Wing mobile app. Alphabet’s other new unit, called Loon, is building high-altitude balloons that deliver internet connections to rural or disaster-stricken areas. Loon’s massive balloons navigate wind currents in the stratosphere, roughly 13 miles above ground, to cluster around areas with poor connectivity. Loon partners with local telecommunications companies to improve cell service on the ground, acting as a sort of floating, temporary cell tower.

Comcast moved quickly to counter 21st Century Fox’s latest bid for Sky, raising its offer to $34 billion on the same day that Fox upped its buyout bid for the European satellite TV provider. Comcast said its higher bid has been recommended by Sky’s committee of independent directors evaluating the swirl of bidding for the satcaster. Earlier July 11, the same committee recommended Fox’s higher bid but reversed course after receiving the outline of Comcast’s higher offer. Comcast’s renewed focus on the bidding for Sky has stirred speculation that the company is shifting its focus to winning the race to acquire Sky and backing off of its duel with Disney for major assets of 21st Century Fox. Comcast is vying against Fox for control of Sky, and it is in the midst of a bidding war with Disney for major assets of Fox. Those assets include Fox’s existing 39% stake in Sky, with the hopes that Fox will be able to close its long-pending takeover of Sky soon in order to deliver 100% of Sky to Disney or Comcast. With Comcast’s quick action on Sky, the question now turns to whether Fox or Disney will return fire with a sweetened offer for Sky. By UK law, Sky shareholders now have 60 days to study Comcast’s offer and decide whether to accept Comcast’s tender offer. 

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) hosted a press conference July 11 to call for the Federal Communications Commission to convert its children's television notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) into a notice of inquiry (NOI) so it can collect more data on the impact of its proposals. He was joined by Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and other children's TV advocates. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is planning a July 12 vote on an NPRM which which would not be a final vote, but would signal what the FCC wants to do (and what it still has questions about), with a final vote not coming until stakeholders had a chance to weigh in and the item adjusted accordingly (if need be). The item tentatively concludes that educational and informational programming does not have to be at least a half-hour in length and regularly scheduled. The agency also proposes cutting the frequency of kids TV reports to the FCC from quarterly to annually. Sen Markey says the proposals are not based on the kind of fact-driven inquiry needed for such changes and that FCC Commissioner Micahel O'Rielly's "hunches," (as Sen Blumenthal put it), are not enough to justify the proposals.

July 2018 marks the fifth anniversary of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, which was first coined following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. In the course of those five years, #BlackLivesMatter has become an archetypal example of modern protests and political engagement on social media: A new Pew Research Center analysis of public tweets finds the hashtag has been used nearly 30 million times on Twitter – an average of 17,002 times per day – as of May 1, 2018. The rise of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag – along with others like #MeToo and #MAGA (Make America Great Again) – has sparked a broader discussion about the effectiveness and viability of using social media for political engagement and social activism. To that end, a new survey by the Center finds that majorities of Americans do believe these sites are very or somewhat important for accomplishing a range of political goals, such as getting politicians to pay attention to issues (69% of Americans feel these platforms are important for this purpose) or creating sustained movements for social change (67%).

Researchers will soon have a chance to study every link shared on Facebook, thanks to a new data set released through a research partnership with Social Science One. Announced earlier in 2018, the partnership brings together independent academics with data from Facebook and funding from independent foundations, hoping to provide new insight into the impact of social media on elections. The first data set shared under the new initiative will be a massive and continuously updated database of all public links shared on Facebook, starting in January 2017. The data set includes information on how often a given link was viewed, whether it spread through person-to-person sharing or group pages, and how often it was flagged as spam, hate speech, or misinformation.  The data set also includes information on whether a given link was coded as “hard news” by Facebook’s open graph and when and how it was vetted by Facebook’s internal fact-checkers. That information could be crucial as researchers look into the effectiveness of Facebook efforts to slow the spread of misinformation on its network. The data will be updated continuously, and is expected to include 2 million new and unique URLs shared across 300 million posts each week. “It’s an overwhelming data set for people interested in social media and democracy,” said commission co-chair Nathaniel Persily.

The Cyber Diplomacy Act of 2018 (HR 3776) would codify the role and responsibilities of an existing office within the Department of State that works to advance US interests in cyberspace and coordinates US efforts to promote open, reliable, and secure communications technology. In addition, the act would require the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) to assess and report to the Congress on the extent to which international actors threaten the personal information of US citizens and the department’s efforts to protect such personal information. Finally, HR 3776 would require the department to brief or report to the Congress on: Executive agreements on cyberspace policy made with other countries; Updates to an existing international policy on cyberspace; and Freedom of expression through electronic means in foreign countries. The department indicated that implementing HR 3776 would not change the current policies and practices of the office nor would it impose any additional costs. Using information about the costs of similar reports, CBO estimates that implementing the reporting requirements under HR 3776 would cost less than $500,000 each year and total $1 million over the 2019-2023 period; such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

On his first day as a newly minted nominee to the Supreme Court, more than a half-dozen swing senators made clear that Judge Brett Kavanaugh will have to say the right things on their policy priorities if he wants to get confirmed. Judge Kavanaugh will have to work to gain the vote of a skeptical Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) over the government’s surveillance powers. Sen Paul is never one to give up his vote easily. And he has serious concerns with Kavanaugh’s views on government surveillance. Sen Paul has long been against sweeping collection of data from US spy agencies, even briefly shutting down portions of the Patriot Act in 2015. On the DC Circuit, Judge Kavanaugh wrote that the “the government’s metadata collection program is entirely consistent with the Fourth Amendment.” “Critical national security need outweighs the impact on privacy occasioned by this program. The government’s program does not capture the content of communications, but rather the time and duration of calls, and the numbers called. In short, the government’s program fits comfortably within the Supreme Court precedents,” Judge Kavanaugh wrote. Sen. Paul is a wildcard: He voted against CIA Director Gina Haspel but for Secretary of State Pompeo. On Judge Kavanaugh, he isn’t tipping his hand early and insists he’ll keep an “open mind.” He refused to even answer specific questions about Kavanaugh’s record

Having your voice heard at the Federal Communications Commission could soon cost you hundreds of dollars, according to congressional Democrats who oppose a looming rule change. But that may not be the case after all, a review of the FCC proposal shows.

At issue is a proposal that the FCC is expected to vote on July 12 that looks at the agency’s process for handling “informal” complaints — the kind you might file if you’ve received an unwanted robocall or if you’ve heard something indecent on the radio. Under the proposal, the FCC could pass the informal complaints it receives directly to the companies that consumers are complaining about. That might result in FCC staff no longer reviewing those submissions. And customers who receive no relief from the companies would then be forced to lodge a “formal” complaint at the FCC, an existing procedure that costs $225.

The proposed changes to the FCC rules allow for the agency to send complaints to companies, and they do recommend that consumers who are dissatisfied with the results file a “formal” complaint. But both the new policy and the existing policy are worded similarly. The rest of the FCC proposal largely deals with formal complaints and their associated processes, including fact-finding, conferences between parties that are in dispute and establishing timelines for quick complaint resolution.

The proposed changes alone do not rule out the possibility of the FCC cutting back on its staff’s involvement with consumers who file informal complaints. But the changes do not appear to push consumers toward filing formal complaints any more than the current policy does. And the FCC confirmed that agency officials will remain engaged with informal complainants under the updated policy.

China’s internet giants are competing with each other on multiple fronts either by nurturing their in-house products and services, or by investing in external players for access to technology and users in artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and media and content. The China Internet Report, an in-depth look at China’s internet landscape with its 772 million internet users, is the second such report after its introduction in 2017. The China Internet Report also highlights the role of Chinese internet companies in empowering the country’s next wave of development in rural areas, where around 490,000 online shops are run by rural households, and 55 million rural students are connected to live-streaming classes. Baidu, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings – collectively known as BAT in the industry – have grown so large, with combined revenues of 550 billion yuan (US $87.3 billion), that they dominate nearly every aspect of the Chinese internet, with core businesses ranging from web search and social media to e-commerce and entertainment.