Digital Literacy for St. Cloud State University
The FCC extended assistance that started during the pandemic
There’s more funding on the way to close the digital divide in the US. The new $1 trillion infrastructure law includes $65 billion to boost broadband access. More than 30 million Americans live somewhere without adequate broadband infrastructure, according to a Biden administration fact sheet.
https://www.govtech.com/network/infrastructure-bill-promises-historic-boost-for-digital-equity
The recently signed $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package includes $2.75 billion for digital equity and inclusion work, delivering an investment that advocates are calling unprecedented and historic.
Within the $65 billion going toward broadband, the $2.75 billion for digital equity and inclusion is set for two programs made up of grants. First, the money will go toward a digital equity capacity grant program for states.
+++++++++++++++++++++
More on digital equity in this blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+equity
Before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to repeal net neutrality at the end of 2017, the agency collected public opinion on the policy. In all, it said it received nearly 22 million comments. Over the years, there’s been a fair amount of discussion surrounding where many of those came from, with a study from that same year suggesting that only six percent of the comments were unique.
a report found the “largest” broadband companies funded a secret astroturfing campaign to push the FCC toward repealing net neutrality. At the time, AT&T, Comcast, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) were in favor of repealing the policy. The industry hired several third-party firms to build public support for their decision. Ostensibly, those companies were supposed to convince people to support the broadband industry with incentives like gift cards and prizes. Instead, they simply submitted 8.5 million fake comments. The attorney general has fined three of the companies involved in sending in those comments $4.4 million.
+++++++++++++++
more on net neutrality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=netneutrality
New York State just passed a law requiring ISPs to offer $15 broadband from r/technology
Earlier in 2021, a bipartisan group of senators called on the FCC to redefine broadband as 100 Mbps down and 100 Mbps up, as that would better reflect how people actually use their internet.
Still, paying $15 a month for 25 Mbps down is a heckuva lot better than paying $50 a month for those same speeds. Better yet, for those living in urban areas such as New York City, where the internet tends to be much faster, the same bill caps the price of broadband up to 200 Mbps at just $20 a month.
++++++++++
more on netneutrality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=netneutrality
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/19/mozilla-leads-push-for-fcc-to-reinstate-net-neutrality.html
+++++++++++++++++
more on net neutrality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=netneutrality
It survived challenges from Trump’s DOJ, and now one from telecom industry too
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/23/22298199/california-net-neutrality-law-sb822
Here’s the full text of the California Internet Consumer Protection and Net Neutrality Act of 2018, also known as SB-822. It contains a list of things that ISPs are not going to be able to do, including paid prioritization, “zero-rating” favorable content so it doesn’t count against your data cap (think of those bundled streaming services!), and failing to tell you fast service actually is and how their network management practices and speeds actually work
++++++++++++
more on net neutrality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=netneutrality
Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced at her first meeting as head of the agency a new task force to improve the FCC’s broadband maps. https://t.co/PCwteKPcCo
— CNET (@CNET) February 18, 2021
https://www.cnet.com/news/fcc-chair-rosenworcel-launches-broadband-mapping-task-force/
The FCC has acknowledged that the maps it uses to figure out how to distribute the billions of dollars in federal funding it offers each year to subsidize the cost of building out infrastructure are flawed.
+++++++++++
more on net neutrality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=netneutrality
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/12/22280964/att-provides-fiber-after-newspaper-ad-media-coverage
Earlier this month, Aaron Epstein spent $10,000 to buy an ad in The Wall Street Journal to tell AT&T’s CEO he wasn’t happy with his internet service — service that was limited to a paltry 3Mbps (via Ars Technica). Now, AT&T has him hooked up with a fiber connection, and he’s getting over 300 Mbps up and down. All it took was getting interviewed by Ars, the ad going viral on Twitter, and a Stephen Colbert mention.
+++++++++++++++
more on netneutrality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=netneutrality
https://www.pcmag.com/news/what-is-wi-fi-6e
3Mbps uploads still fast enough for US homes, Ajit Pai says in final report from r/technology
Rosenworcel said that Pai’s report obscures “the hard truth that the digital divide is very real and very big” and that “it confounds logic that today the FCC decides to release a report that says that broadband is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.”
++++++++++
more on netneutrality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=netneutrality