The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated digital divide issues, and more focus needs to be put on items such as better pedagogy for remote education and the lack of broadband affordability for many, speakers said Thursday at an Axios broadband event. NCTA President Michael Powell said the number of Americans without broadband availability could dramatically decline over the next five to 10 years with proper government support. But economics is also a hindrance, and low-income access efforts like NCTA's K-12 Bridge to Broadband program need to be a higher societal imperative, he said. Beyond connectivity, more work is needed on adapting educational curricula to remote learning and teaching students digital skills, he said. Without such efforts, even with more universal connectivity, "you're still going to get suboptimal results," Powell said. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said lack of granular data about who has broadband is "frustrating," but it's already well established that 77 million people in the U.S. lack adequate home fixed broadband connections, large numbers of people in urban areas are unconnected, and communities of color are persistently "on the wrong side of the digital divide," with particularly high rates of adults lacking broadband connections. Starks said "help is on the way" in tackling rural access issues, but broadband affordability and digital literacy -- particularly with seniors often not realizing the must-have nature of broadband -- are also key problems. Expand the E-rate program, he said. Plinio Ayala, CEO of IT career training nonprofit Per Scholas, said artificial intelligence will disrupt industries such as hospitality, retail and transportation, and the pandemic accelerated that. He said workforce development programs like his and others need more private and public sector investment. Comcast said Thursday it was giving Per Scholas $1 million to scale its operations. Jessie Woolley-Wilson, CEO of online educational software firm DreamBox, said 15 million U.S. students are falling behind educationally because they lack "persistent, consistent" broadband access. Treat broadband like a utility, with sustained funding for access and devices in schools, she said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed for cloture Thursday on FCC nominee Nathan Simington. Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota and other GOP leaders have been eyeing a floor vote on Simington as soon as next week, after the Senate Commerce Committee voted 14-12 Wednesday to advance the nominee (see 2012020069). A mid-week floor vote appears likely given McConnell’s decision to file cloture Thursday, lobbyists told us. Senate Commerce member Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Charter praised the move to advance Simington, while Free Press and New America’s Open Technology Institute criticized it.
Wireless infrastructure rules take effect Jan. 4, says Thursday's Federal Register. The FCC voted 3-2 for the order Oct. 27 (see 2011030054).
The 2019 revised rules for the 2.5 GHz educational broadband service band (see 1907100054) was partisan and controversial, so until a new FCC is in place the agency should table a draft order denying a reconsideration petition by the School, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition and other educational groups, the SHLB and others said in a docket 18-120 letter to be posted. They said implementation of the EBS order should be put on hold. The groups pointed to lawmakers' "pencils-down" calls for the FCC (see 2011100061) and then-Commissioner Ajit Pai's similar call in 2016 (see 1611150052). Though commissioners agreed on some aspects of the 2.5 GHz order, such as the tribal priority window, the 3-2 vote showed they "were plainly divided on the future of the 2.5 GHz band," the groups said. They said Congress "is still actively considering this issue" via legislation to extend the rural tribal priority window for 180 days. The commission didn't comment. According to its items on circulation list, a recon order regarding the 2.5 GHz band has been on circulation since Oct. 16.
NTCH's petition asking the Supreme Court to consider H-block waivers granted to Dish Network and the related spectrum auction order would have SCOTUS considering challenges to an order on which neither the FCC nor the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has decided, said a commission opposition Monday (docket 20-410) to NTCH's petition for writ of certiorari. The D.C. Circuit vacated the waiver in February and remanded NTCH claims to the FCC (see 2002210044). The agency also opposed NTCH's challenge of the Auction 96 order, saying the D.C. Circuit found it "reasonable," which shows it wasn't arbitrary and capricious. Dish's opposition said NTCH's cert petition "hinges on the erroneous narrative that the FCC improperly adopted certain policy outcomes based on an alleged 'backroom' agreement with DISH." FCC justifications and process "easily satisfied" the Administrative Procedure Act and commission rules, Dish said, noting NTCH isn't arguing the D.C. Circuit conflicted with another appellate court or a state court of last resort or departs from accepted judicial proceedings. NTCH outside counsel didn't comment Tuesday.
SomosGov will be the reassigned numbers database administrator for five years, with an option to continue up to eight, the FCC announced Tuesday. Somos can "continue providing stability and reliability," said Ann Berkowitz, chief administrative officer. The newly established role will operate a reassigned numbers database, combining responsibilities of the North American numbering plan administrator and pooling administrator. Both were held by Somos (see 1810160052).
Voice service providers can block all calls from phone numbers highly likely to be associated with "one-ring scams," per an FCC order Monday. Such calls -- which involve a caller disconnecting after one ring, tricking the called party to call back and incur toll charges, of which the caller gets a cut -- "serve no beneficial purpose," so there's no need to require terminating providers give customers an opportunity to opt out of blocking the calls, it said. The agency said voice providers already are allowed by law to block illegal calls including one-ring scam calls. The order authorized under the Traced Act removes any doubt providers can "use reasonable analytics to identify and block calls that appear to be one-ring scam calls, even if such identification proves to be erroneous in any particular instance." It said blocking won't make providers liable for inadvertently blocking wanted calls and can be done on a network-wide basis. Those protections "will strongly encourage voice service providers to take a more aggressive approach to blocking one-ring scam calls," it said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the National Lifeline Association’s request for emergency stay of the FCC Wireline Bureau increasing the minimum service standard to 4.5 GB a month (see 2011250064), said an order (in Pacer) Monday. The increase takes effect Tuesday, and Lifeline providers say it's an existential threat. The lack of a stay "is disappointing," said NaLA attorney John Heitmann of Kelley Drye. Judges Patricia Millett, Neomi Rao and Cornelia Pillard said petitioners NaLA and Assist Wireless “have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay.” Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman called that D.C. Circuit “boilerplate” for stay rejections. He called it a positive sign for NaLA that the judges requested an FCC response to NaLA’s request for a writ of mandamus compelling the agency to act on reconsideration petitions against a 2016 Lifeline order. "NaLA will continue to work on multiple fronts to preserve free access for Lifeline-eligible consumers to mobile broadband, including by seeking commission review of the bureau’s waiver order," Heitmann said. The timing of Heitmann’s application for review could influence how it's received at the FCC, attorneys said. The current commission doesn't have enough likely yes votes to advance a draft order on the Lifeline increase (see 2011160051). The change in the White House, Pai's stepping down next month (see 2011300032), and the possibility of prospective commissioner Nathan Simington replacing Commissioner Mike O’Rielly (see 2011240061) could change that dynamic, attorneys said.
The Wireline Bureau’s 4.5-a-month GB Lifeline minimum service standard order will “heave” customers and providers “into a new digital divide created by the FCC’s results-driven, record-be-damned decision-making,” said the National Lifeline Association in a brief (in Pacer) filed Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2011240059). The agency doesn’t use record evidence to rebut claims from providers that the MSS increase will kill the Lifeline program, NaLA said. “Instead, the FCC speculates that a general trend downward in wireless rates will make it possible for carriers to absorb a 50% data increase on December 1 with no increased subsidy.” The FCC’s brief pointed to a T-Mobile statement it will offer a Lifeline plan at 4.5 GB as evidence that the MSS is viable, but T-Mobile -- and thus its Lifeline provider subsidy Assurance -- doesn’t have to buy spectrum like other Lifeline providers do, NaLA said. The 4.5 GB MSS “will create a new chasm with 31% of Lifeline subscribers served by T-Mobile’s Assurance having free access to 4.5 GB while 63% served by wireless resellers (overwhelmingly T-Mobile’s wholesale partners) will not,” NaLA said. The FCC hasn’t shown that freezing the MSS at 3 GB will cause any harms, NaLA said. “All Lifeline stakeholders, including carriers, public interest groups, state commissions and commissioners, and policymakers from both parties, agreed that the FCC should pause the MSS at 3 GB to avoid jeopardizing affordable free Lifeline mobile broadband service and delay any MSS changes.” T-Mobile and the FCC didn’t comment.
The FCC and FTC have begun working with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition review teams, the agencies confirmed. The moves, weeks after news agencies declared that Biden defeated President Donald Trump, follow General Services Administration head Emily Murphy’s Monday decision to allow federal agencies to begin the transition process. The FCC and Biden’s review team for the commission “have made contact,” and the commission “will fully cooperate in the transition process,” a spokesperson emailed. Michael Carowitz, special counsel to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, is “running point on the transition for the Chairman’s Office." Carowitz was previously acting Enforcement Bureau chief and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau deputy chief. Biden’s FCC team members are House Judiciary Committee Senior Counselor John Williams; former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn; DLA Piper’s Smitty Smith, a former FCC and NTIA staffer; and Paul de Sa, former FCC official and analyst (see 2011160020). FTC Chairman Joe Simons also “instructed Commissioners and staff that the transition is underway,” a spokesperson emailed. It “provides us an opportunity to show both the great work the FTC has done in the past, as well as the FTC’s commitment to continuing that work in the future.” FTC Executive Director David Robbins and Deputy Monique Fortenberry are the commission’s point people working with the Biden team. Biden’s FTC team members are former commission Deputy General Counsel Heather Hippsley, Brookings Institution’s Bill Baer and Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology Associate Director Laura Moy (see 2011100061).