Universal Broadband

[Commentary] Because infrastructure supply-siders wield considerable influence in this debate, connectivity efforts have taken center stage, pushing inclusion efforts and research to the side. Yet, effective policy will require customized approaches that focus on specific places and communities, matching both demand and supply concerns. Researchers agree. Broadband policy needs to move towards a more nuanced view. Hopefully policy makers will adopt it.

[Will Rinehart is a tech policy analyst in DC]

As part of its ongoing efforts to accelerate access to high-speed Internet service, the Federal Communications Commission is seeking comment on ways to increase deployment, competition and innovation in the market for broadband in apartments, shopping malls and other “multiple tenant environments,” or MTEs. While FCC rules currently bar telecommunications and video services providers from entering into exclusive agreements that can stifle competition in MTEs, the FCC has adopted a Notice of Inquiry seeking information about what additional barriers to deployment may exist. The FCC is requesting input on whether and how it should act to remove any barriers that raise the cost and slow deployment in MTEs of next-generation networks, which are critical to jobs, health care, education, innovation, and information.

Specifically, the Notice seeks comment on:

• The current state of broadband competition in MTEs.
• Whether there are state and local regulations that may inhibit or have the effect of inhibiting broadband deployment and competition within MTEs, such as by preventing market entry or mandating infrastructure sharing by private companies.
• Whether the Commission should take any action regarding service providers’ exclusive marketing and bulk billing arrangements within MTEs.
• How revenue sharing agreements and exclusive wiring arrangements between MTE owners and Internet service providers may affect broadband competition within MTEs.
• Other practices that may impact the ability of Internet service providers to compete in MTEs.

The Federal Communications Commission approved a request by WorldVu Satellites Limited, which does business as OneWeb, to access the United States satellite market. The action paves the way for OneWeb to provide broadband services using satellite technology that holds unique promise to expand Internet access in remote and rural areas across the country.

This approval is the first of its kind for a new generation of large, non-geostationary-satellite orbit (NGSO), fixed-satellite service (FSS) systems. OneWeb proposes to access the U.S. market for its global network of 720 low-Earth orbit satellites using the Ka (20/30 GHz) and Ku (11/14 GHz) frequency bands to provide global Internet connectivity. The satellite system will be authorized by the United Kingdom, but needs FCC approval to provide service in the US. In order for large broadband network constellations to deliver services in the US, the FCC must approve their operations to ensure the satellite constellation does not cause interference to other users of the same spectrum and will operate in a way that manages the risk of collisions. The Order and Declaratory Ruling outlines the conditions under which OneWeb will be permitted to provide service using its proposed NGSO FSS satellite constellation in the United States. As such, this FCC action provides a blueprint for the earth station licenses that OneWeb, or its partners, will need to obtain before providing OneWeb’s proposed service in the United States.

President Donald Trump said that expanded access to broadband internet service in rural areas will be part of the infrastructure plan he will submit to Congress, helping to bridge a digital divide that leaves small towns behind.

"I will be including a provision in our infrastructure proposal -- $1 trillion proposal, you’ll be seeing it very shortly -- to promote and foster, enhance broadband access for rural America also," President Trump said. Trump’s plan to use $200 billion in federal funds to leverage investment in national infrastructure improvement has prompted rural groups to fight for broadband’s inclusion, arguing that such access is a 21st-century version of the electrification and water projects that brought prosperity to sparsely populated areas in the past.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told reporters while aboard Air Force One en route to the event that private investors haven’t found rural areas as profitable as urban ones, potentially making a greater federal role in expanding broadband appropriate. "We think we ought to have the same push to have broadband connectivity all over the country because in the 21st century it is just as important as a telephone, water, sewer, roads," Sec Perdue said. "It has become an infrastructure of necessity."

The White House is gathering technology leaders on June 22 to discuss how the industry aims to drive economic growth in emerging technology areas like wireless broadband and drones.

Administration officials from the Office of Science and Technology Policy will bring in leaders from 25 technology companies and venture capital firms for an event titled “American Leadership in Emerging Technology.” The meeting is part of “tech week,” an initiative aimed at bolstering the Trump administration's relationship with the technology industry — which has been contentious — and the administration’s own information technology infrastructure. The event at the White House departs from tech week’s previous focus on modernizing technology within the federal government and instead will focus on “outward facing tech policy,” and “defending America’s leadership in the technology economy.” Jared Kushner is slated to be at the event, along with other administration officials and advisers including Ivanka Trump, Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn and Deputy US Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios.

The tech leaders will break into three working groups to discuss drones, 5G wireless broadband and the Internet of Things (IoT), and financing emerging technology before meeting with President Trump to discuss the breakout sessions.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) in a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, urged the agency to find ways to better utilize spectrum in the mid-band range for commercial use.

Chairman Thune’s letter, sent amidst the Trump administration’s focus on tech policy this week, stresses the need to modernize spectrum policy to keep pace with innovation as the nation moves toward a 5G world: “While the U.S. has pushed ahead with efforts to free new spectrum at both low and high frequencies, we lag behind other countries in ‘mid-band spectrum’ - the range of frequencies between 3GHz and 7 GHz,” wrote Thune to Pai. “Europe, China, Japan, and South Korea are all moving ahead to allocate hundreds of megahertz of mid-band spectrum, for licensed and unlicensed uses, in anticipation of both new Internet of Things applications as well as rising demand for mobile broadband that can be met with small cell deployments.” To bolster development of next generation wireless services, Chairman Thune re-introduced the bipartisan MOBILE NOW Act in January 2017 that would help free up large swaths of spectrum for commercial use by 2020.

The House Communications Subcommittee drilled down on coverage mapping and definitions in a hearing June 21. Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) also made some news, saying the subcommittee was looking to hold a Federal Communications Commission oversight hearing in July. The hearing focused on updating the National Broadband Map, which has not happened since June 2014, "if you can believe that," she added, as well as what the definition of access to broadband should be, high-speed or basic, unserved or underserved.

Chairman Blackburn said the digital divide continues to plague rural America, echoing the consensus at the Senate hearing a day before, but also said the government needs to be good stewards of the taxpayers' money by having accurate data so that areas with the greatest need are targeted "by both public and private investment." She said accurate definitions and mapping data is imperative so that "hardworking taxpayer money" goes to areas that most need it. On the other side, Ranking Member Mike Doyle (D-PA) said he and Chairman Blackburn agreed broadband was critical for the nation and the economy, and the country was still struggling to connect unserved and underserved members of the community. He said that while Universal Service funding was making a dent, more needed to be done.

Members of the new Broadband Access Coalition called on the Federal Communications Commission to authorize a new, licensed, point-to-multipoint (P2MP) fixed wireless service in the underutilized 3700 - 4200 MHz spectrum band used primarily by fixed satellite services. The proposed licensing scheme and operating rules enable gigabit and near-gigabit broadband service in rural and underserved areas, and promote competition for broadband delivery among various technologies and licensees.

The Senate Communications Subcommittee on June 20 took a deep dive into the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund, with a focus on rural broadband deployment and telehealth. Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) signaled that he and Ranking Member Brian Schatz (D-HI) were reintroducing the Reaching Underserved Rural Areas to Lead [RURAL] on Telehealth Act, which would qualify some rural healthcare providers for USF funds. He said robust broadband connections are vital to the adoption of "lifesaving technology." Wicker, who previously has introduced a bill requiring the FCC to improve broadband data collection, said, "[E]nsuring broadband deployment to rural healthcare providers is a critical component of the USF program." He also said the importance of delivering broadband to rural areas cannot be understated, citing economic and digital innovation.

President Donald Trump will commit on June 21 to improving internet access in the country’s hardest-to-reach rural areas as a part of his forthcoming push to improve the nation’s infrastructure.

President Trump will outline his pledge during a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, shortly after visiting Kirkwood Community College, which specializes in fields like precision agriculture. In the eyes of the White House, farmers can’t use emerging big data tools that track crops in real time without faster, more reliable broadband internet service — so the Trump administration intends to tackle that challenge as part of its campaign to upgrade the country’s roads and bridges. “Even in American agriculture, technology is the key to better yields and more returns,” said Ray Starling, the special assistant to the president for agriculture, trade and food assistance. Those farmers in the coming years will have to learn “not only how to turn a wrench,” Starling said, “but also how to write code and rewire circuit boards.” But Starling did not offer any specifics as to how Trump planned to improve broadband in the country’s agricultural heartland.