Policymakers and legislatures work to contain the harm AI and deepfakes could do in this year's elections

(Graphic by Sean Westwood/DALL-E artificial intelligence
via Dartmouth)

AI and deepfake political ads are easy to disseminate and pose a threat to U.S. elections. Policymakers have been hard at work trying to get ahead of the problem. "The Federal Communications Commission announced it would move forward with a proposal to require that TV and radio advertisements disclose on air when AI is used," reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty. "The timeline for the rule’s implementation is unclear, but it is expected to go into effect by November."

The proposal's green light wasn't unanimous. Teale writes, "Commissioner Brendan Carr said in a statement that the FCC’s proposal, which will be subject to a vote later this year, is a 'recipe for chaos' that can 'only muddy the waters.'. . . 'Suddenly, Americans will see disclosures for AI-generated content on some screens but not others, for some political ads but not others, with no context for why they see these disclosures or which part of the political advertisement contains AI."

One deepfake trick is to generate robocalls to voters. Before the "New Hampshire presidential primary election, a robocall purportedly featuring President Joe Biden discouraged voters from going to the polls, and instead told them to wait until November’s general election to vote," Teale explains. "The call turned out to be a deepfake generated by artificial intelligence."

The FCC's rule is "one of many efforts in recent weeks to get ahead of the potential threat deepfakes pose. State and local election offices have already seen how AI-generated content could be used to spread misinformation and disinformation," Teale reports. "President Joe Biden has already been the subject of much AI-generated content, including a video on Facebook that made it look like he inappropriately touched his granddaughter’s chest after they voted in the 2022 midterms."

AI leaves voters unsure of who's saying what and possibly defaulting to believing nothing anyone says. In response, policymakers and legislatures are working through the best ways to help create clarity where there could be chaos. Teale writes, "Already, several state legislatures have passed laws requiring disclosure of AI’s use in elections and campaigns, with only Minnesota and Texas outright banning it. More than three dozen states are in various stages of considering similar disclosure bills."

Comparing U.S. broadband coverage using two different maps shows 'stark contrasts' in representation

Photo by Possessed Photography, Unsplash

Two separate broadband maps give different pictures of how the service is offered throughout the U.S. "Using the results of 'broadband audits' across the United States, Ready.net has collected geographic data, information about available internet speeds, and demographic data to determine areas that are 'likely or arguably' underserved or unserved," reports Brad Randall of Broadband Communities. The results offer a "stark contrast" with the Federal Communication Commission's reported data.

Ready.net "establishes the ground truth of America's broadband reality," Randall writes. "Compared to the FCC's National Broadband Map, the Ready.net interactive map displays the U.S. as a patchwork of served, underserved, and unserved locations."

Location comparisons show how the maps differ. In Hyde County, North Carolina, pop. 4,600, the FCC's map "reports 100% coverage of fixed broadband services, the Ready.net map reports a county that is 81.7% unserved and 18.1% underserved," Randall reports. "Similarly, in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, pop. 8, 600, 90.7% of the county is listed as unserved despite the county's 100% coverage representation on the FCC's National Broadband Map for fixed broadband."

According to Ready.net data, the most underserved and unserved states are as follows:

1. Alaska (36.6%)
2. Montana (29.1%)
3. West Virginia (26.3%)
4. Wyoming (22.8%)
5. Vermont (21.3%)
6. Idaho (20.7%)
7. Mississippi (19.9%)
8. New Mexico (18.6%)
9. Wisconsin (18.4%)
10. Louisiana (17.3%)

FCC rescinds SpaceX funding for broadband services in rural America; decision affects customers in 35 states

Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of SpaceX 
(Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes, Reuters)

The Federal Communications Commission has refused to reinstate SpaceX's roughly $900 million in rural broadband subsidies, which were to be used to provide high-speed internet services to rural customers in 35 states. The work was scheduled to be handled by the company's satellite internet unit Starlink to improve rural internet access. "The FCC said the decision impacting Elon Musk's space company was based on Starlink's failure to meet basic program requirements," reports David Shepardson of Reuters. "And that Starlink could not demonstrate it could deliver promised service after SpaceX had challenged the 2022 decision."

"The FCC had rescinded the funding in August 2022 based on speed-test data after Starlink had agreed to provide high-speed Internet service to 642,000 rural homes and businesses in 35 states," Shepardson writes. Jon Brodkin of Ars Technica reports, "The [August rejection ruling] called Starlink a 'nascent LEO [low Earth orbit] satellite technology' with recognized capacity constraints.' The FCC questioned Starlink's ability to consistently provide low-latency service with the required download speeds of 100Mbps and upload speeds of 20Mbps."

SpaceX filed a reply to the denial, saying the company was "deeply disappointed and perplexed by the Commission's decision to exclude SpaceX's Starlink from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. This decision directly undermines the very goal of RDOF: to connect unserved and underserved Americans. Starlink is arguably the only viable option to immediately connect many of the Americans who live and work in the rural and remote areas of the country where high-speed, low-latency Internet has been unreliable, unaffordable, or completely unavailable, the very people RDOF was supposed to connect."

The two Republican commissioners on the five-member FCC "dissented from the decision, saying the FCC was improperly holding SpaceX to 2025 targets three years early and suggesting the Biden administration's anger toward Musk was to blame," Shepardson reports. "Musk said in a post on X the FCC decision 'doesn't make sense. Starlink is the only company actually solving rural broadband at scale! They should arguably dissolve the program and return funds to taxpayers, but definitely not send it (to) those who aren't getting the job done.'"

FCC tug-of-war over 'net neutrality' is back; having only 'one game in town' is harder on rural areas

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel commenting on internet services.
(Photo by Matt McClain, The Washington Post)

After a six-year stalemate, the swinging vine of net neutrality is back as the Federal Communications Commission looks to improve internet provider services for consumers. "The push comes amid widespread grievance with internet service providers — a reflection, some regulators say, of monopoly power wielded by a short list of providers," reports Eva Dou of The Washington Post. In rural areas, the pain of only one internet company is deep because customers can complain about service or connection but have nowhere else to go, and their providers can afford to ignore their historically low customer service ratings.

The debate over internet providers is underscored in its history. In 2014, when the FCC "asked the public to comment on how to regulate internet providers, such as Comcast and Verizon, it received more than a million responses. Aggrieved customers crashed the commission's website," Dou writes. In 2015, the FCC moved to take control with "the landmark 2015 decision — known as 'net neutrality' — to regulate internet service as a public utility, akin to water or electricity. . . . [It gave] the FCC broad oversight over internet service providers, including ensuring they did not discriminate or charge unreasonable rates." In 2017, the Trump administration repealed the rule.

Now, the FCC is set "to reinstate net neutrality as the law of the land. The agency argues that restoring the rule will improve consumers' experience with internet providers — including by enabling it to better track broadband service outages and network reliability," Dou reports. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a speech Tuesday that due to high costs of entry into the market, there is often only one high-speed broadband provider in some parts of the country. 'That provider might be the only game in town,' she said. 'You need a referee on the field looking out for the public interest.'"

The reinstatement process will take months. "If the FCC gives the green light at its Oct. 19 monthly meeting, the agency will embark on a new rulemaking process with public comment," Dou adds. Tim Wu, a Columbia University Law School antitrust expert "who coined the phrase' net neutrality' in the early 2000s, said one new consideration this time around is the rise of 'Big Tech' — a term 'that didn't exist 20 years ago.'. . . While the early debate had been just about the power of internet providers, the makers of internet applications such as Google and Amazon are now vastly powerful, making it important that internet providers don't tip the scales toward one of them unfairly." Wu told Dou: "Among other things, [internet service providers'] neutrality is important to prevent making Google and Amazon unassailable."

States are targeting American Rescue Plan capital-project funds to address the 'most complex broadband challenges'

Getty Images photo illustration by Huber & Starke via Route Fifty

States are busy planning how to spend money for capital projects from the American Rescue Plan Act, and according to researchers at Pew Charitable Trusts, they are opting to use it to complete long-awaited broadband projects, reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty. Because capital-project funds are flexible, "states can use them address some of their most complex broadband expansion challenges, including last-mile connections to underserved areas and delivering service to affordable-housing communities," Teale reports.

"What we're seeing happening right now, and really over the last two years in particular, are a lot of necessary changes to the federal broadband policy that are all now being implemented at once," Kathryn de Wit, project director at Pew's Broadband Access Initiative and an author of the report, told Teale. States will receive combined funding to assist in getting them over funding obstacles. Teale reports: "With money from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program likely to be dispersed this year, and another $2.75 billion available through Digital Equity Act programs, the use of CPF provides a lesson in how states can deploy federal funds in new ways to solve some of their most difficult connectivity challenges."

Vermont is one state that is carefully deploying CPA funds to improve the state's broadband. Teale writes, "Vermont is building out a fiber network, coordinated in part by 10 communications union districts . . .  that bring together multiple jurisdictions to work together to find common solutions. . . . The combined CPF funds and the expected BEAD allocation will only cover around 60% of the cost of building out the fiber network, with the rest provided by other state funds, telecommunications companies and other sources." Christine Hallquist, executive director of the Vermont Community Broadband Board, told Teale, "It just wouldn't happen without federal funds."

"What we're seeing are states being very targeted in their spending and thinking about how to maximize the flexibility to reach communities and households that are both expensive to serve and challenging to serve," de Wit told Teale. Teale reports, "The Federal Communications Commission released a new version of its much-maligned broadband availability map in late May, which will likely be the one used to determine BEAD funding allocations, according to broadband analyst Mike Conlow. . . . States should take the planning process seriously, de Wit recommended, as their blueprints will help set goals for deployment and uptake among residents and be critical in measuring their progress."

The FCC is supposed to prevent environmental harm from communications technology but often ignores its mandate

Ilustration by Klaus Kremmerz, ProPublica

Beyond regulating television and radio communications, The Federal Communications Commission has an often forgotten mandate, "to ensure that technology doesn't damage the environment," reports Peter Elkind of ProPublica. "When companies want to add new cell phone towers, build on protected land or launch satellites, the agency typically does little or nothing. . . . The agency's ecological role originated in the National Environmental Policy Act. The law requires federal agencies to assess whether projects they've authorized will cause harm."

The FCC "allows companies to decide for themselves whether their projects require environmental study. . . . . And if the companies break the rules, they're expected to report their own transgression. Few do." Elkind writes. The lax approach has had harmful and potentially disastrous outcomes. For instance, "A 120-foot cellphone tower intended for use by AT&T and T-Mobile [was built]. . . .The site, as the tower company later acknowledged, destroyed some of the nesting habitat of the Puerto Rican nightjar, a tiny endangered songbird. . . . Fewer than 2,000 are believed to be alive today. . . . In Silicon Valley, a space startup pursued plans to equip thousands of satellites to use mercury fuel in orbit."

The FCC has real-time effects on humans and wildlife, Elkind writes: "As it presides over a nationwide buildout for 5G service, which will require 800,000 new 'small cell' transmitters, those perched on street poles and rooftops, often near schools, apartments and homes. But even with this massive effort underway, as ProPublica previously reported, the FCC has refused to revise its radiation-exposure limits, which date back to the era of flip phones. In addition, the agency has cut back on the environmental reviews that it requires while also restricting local governments' control over wireless sites."

In areas where infrastructure projects have started or are planned, residents have pushed back, but considering the FCC's history, it's an uphill battle, Elkind reports: "Hundreds of conflicts have erupted across the country, triggered by citizens fearing risks to their health from wireless radiation, harm to their property values, damage to the environment and the destruction of treasured views. . . . Environmentalists are routinely infuriated by the FCC's stance. . . . In 2014, the FCC hired its first full-time environmental lawyer, Erica Rosenberg. Her mission was an afterthought at the agency." She told Elkind, "Everybody was set on deployment. These environmental laws just got in the way. . . . It was just the culture of the place. Nobody cared." She quit in 2021.

Quick hits: Studies confirm ivermectin doesn't work on Covid; how community journalism helps keep Vt. together...

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

The Federal Communications Commission is redrawing long-criticized broadband connectivity maps, but it looks like the new ones will omit agricultural structures. That could make rural areas look more connected than they are, and leave farmers without broadband where they need it. Read more here.

Here's a good explainer on how ranked choice voting works, and how it helped Democrat Mary Peltola win a House seat in Alaska. Read more here.

How community journalism helps keep Vermont together. Read more here.

The United States is becoming a 'developing country' on global rankings that measure democracy and inequality. Read more here.

The verdict is in on ivermectin. Repeated, reputable clinical trials show that the drug doesn't help Covid-19 patients, according to FactCheck.org. Read more here.

An invasive fungus virtually wiped out the American chestnut about a century ago. Now a nonprofit group is trying to repopulate reclaimed surface coal mines in Appalachia with a hybrid version of the species. Not only would that bring back a once-popular tree, it could help rural communities and the environment in many ways. Read more here.

Rural entrepreneurs report growing anxiety. Read more here.

The Christian majority in the U.S. could fade in coming decades, models predict. Read more here.

Quick hits: An ode to 'leather britches'; webinar on covering methane Sept. 7; communities repurpose shuttered prisons

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

A beloved community theater company in a Colorado mountain town has found a way to survive the pandemic and thrive. Read more here.

Twenty-one states have partly or fully closed prisons and other correctional facilities since 2000; local leaders have found creative ways to repurpose the buildings as apartments, office space, whiskey distilleries, and even movie studios. The moves have served to strengthen the communities and their economies. Read more here.

The presence of Asian longhorned ticks has been confirmed in 17 states across the U.S. That's of particular concern to cattle producers since the ticks carry a highly transmissible disease called Ikeda that is sometimes fatal to cattle. Read more here.

The Rural Health Information Hub has a newly updated resource guide on rural home health services. Read more here.

The Society of Environmental Journalists will host a free Sept. 7 webinar to discuss the latest science, data, and policy initiatives around methane, tips on covering methane, and ways to track methane in your local region or around the world. Read more here.

The Daily Yonder offers up a contemplation of the love-em-or-hate-em Appalachian dish called shuck beans or leather britches. Read more here.

Three weeks after the Federal Communications Commission spiked rural broadband funding for Starlink and LTD Broadband, the agency has authorized an extra $800 million from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund for six providers to build out broadband in over 350,000 locations in 19 states. Read more here.

FCC denies funding to Starlink and LTD, which won rural broadband subsidy auction but don't meet requirements

"LTD Broadband and SpaceX subsidiary Starlink emerged as two of the top 10 winners in the $9.2 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund broadband subsidy auction, but the Federal Communications Commission announced they won’t be taking home any winnings," Diana Goovaerts reports for Fierce Telecom. "In a decision issued a year and a half after the auction’s close, the FCC concluded neither would be able to provide the services they promised when bidding in the proceeding."

LTD was in line for $1.3 billion to bring gigabit internet to 528,000 locations in 15 states, but critics questioned whether a small company could provide services at such a scale, Goovaerts reports. Then LTD was unable to complete the paperwork to show it was an eligible telecommunications carrier in seven of those states by the June 7, 2021, deadline. FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel warned auction winners that they would lose the funding if they couldn't meet their obligations.

With Starlink, which was to get $885.5 million to provide broadband to nearly 643,000 locations in 35 states, the FCC had several concerns. "In a public notice, the FCC cited recent Ookla data which showed Starlink speeds declined" from the fourth quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2022, "well below the promised 20 megabits per second," Goovaerts notes. Though signal reliability doesn't appear to have been a factor in the FCC's decision, a telecoms consultant recently warned that Starlink's satellites are too low in the sky to provide an unobstructed signal to many houses.

Starlink's affordability was also a key issue for the FCC, Emma Roth reports for The Verge, "Starlink increased the price of its starter kit and internet service earlier this year. To get set up, Starlink users now have to pay a $599 upfront fee for the satellite dish . . . on top of the $110 per month price for internet service. (It previously cost $499 for the starter kit and $99 per month.)"

Rosenworcel said Starlink's technology is promising, but not ready for large-scale development: "We must put scarce universal service dollars to their best possible use as we move into a digital future that demands ever more powerful and faster networks. We cannot afford to subsidize ventures that are not delivering the promised speeds or are not likely to meet program requirements."

Quick hits: House panel votes to keep firms from 4 hostile nations from buying farms; broadband boondoggle a caution

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

In a first-of-its-kind agreement, the Biden administration has signed a deal with five Native American tribes to give them more control over day-to-day management of federal land (Bears Ears National Monument in Utah). The deal marks "a new chapter in the federal government’s often-fraught relationship with tribes," Maxine Joselow reports for The Washington Post.

Despite threats of violence, an alpaca ranch in Colorado aims to be a refuge for LGBTQ+ Americans who long for the rural life they were sometimes obliged to leave. Read more here.

On Thursday the House Appropriations Committee voted to bar companies from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran from buying U.S. farmland. The provision will be included in the annual funding bill for the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration. Read more here.

The federal government paid out a record $41.6 billion in subsidies to farmers in 2020, twice as much as in 2018. Read more here.

Like it or not, climate change must be "front and center" in the crafting of the 2023 Farm Bill, write agricultural economists Harwood Schaffer and Daryll Ray in their latest column. Read more here.

Though the Trump administration launched a major initiative to bring broadband to rural America in 2020, many are still waiting; a Las Vegas-based company repeatedly fumbled after winning the right to deliver broadband in parts of 15 states. The situation serves as a cautionary tale as the federal government rolls out another expensive rural broadband program, The Wall Street Journal reports.

AT&T shuts down 3G service tomorrow; transition will hurt rural Americans most, especially vulnerable populations

"Starting on Wednesday, phones and other devices connected to AT&T’s 3G cellular network won’t work anymore. The company is the first major U.S. telecom provider to shut down its 3G service to free up space for faster 5G networks," Savannah Maher reports for Marketplace. T-Mobile will shut down its 3G networks on March 31 and Verizon will follow on Dec. 31.

That will disproportionately hurt rural America, it seems. More remote areas are less likely to have 4G or 5G network coverage, and even in areas that do, many rural residents don't have the money or tech-savvy to get newer devices that can catch a 4G signal. Some older 4G phones that don't support Voice over LTE will also be affected, Kristi Eaton reports for The Daily Yonder.

Some rural populations will be particularly hard-hit: the poor, the elderly, people of color, and those living on reservations. Domestic violence survivors may also be affected: "They may soon not have a working phone to be able to call 911 and ankle monitors for perpetrators may not work sufficiently because they are also on the 3G network and smaller communities may not have the resources to upgrade them," Eaton reports.

Wireless providers have warned about the change for years, and have tried to smooth the way by offering free phone upgrades, but the pandemic has complicated those efforts. Seniors, who often need technical support the most, have been leery of admitting service technicians from wireless carriers or home-alarm companies, and backed-up supply chains and a computer-chip shortage have made it difficult to replace old devices, Cat Zakrzewski reports for The Washington Post.

Phones and tablets won't be the only thing affected. Some farming and industrial equipment relies on 3G networks. "You might use it to monitor what’s going on with an oil rig or a wind turbine or an irrigation system," Carri Bennet of the Rural Wireless Association told Maher. Also affected: some cars, life-alert systems, school bus trackers, court-ordered breathalyzers, and more, Zakrewski reports. It's unclear how many Americans still rely on 3G networks; the most recent data show that nearly 20% of Americans were still on 3G networks as of 2018.

FCC announces over $1.2 billion for rural broadband, and a new program to make sure it's spent properly

"The Federal Communications Commission is ready to authorize more than $1.2 billion in funding through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. Announced in 2019, the 10-year program seeks to expand broadband internet access across rural America. In an announcement spotted by The Verge, the FCC says the funding wave will see 23 broadband providers bring internet service to more than 1 million locations across 32 states," I. Bonifacic reports for Engadget. "Additionally, and maybe even more importantly, the FCC also announced the Rural Broadband Accountability Plan, a program to ensure recipients of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund are properly spending the funding they receive from the public."

"The commission announced in July 2021 that it wanted to "clean up" the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund after it discovered that internet service providers had accepted funds to deploy broadband in urban areas or in places where high-speed internet was already available. Those companies were told to either justify their bids or withdraw their funding requests," Nathaniel Mott reports for PC.

The program aims to increase oversight for broadband funding recipients by doing twice as many audits as last year and doing more on-site audits (especially for large or "high-risk" recipients), Mott reports. Also, for the first time, the results of verifications, audits, and speed and latency performance testing will be publicly available online.

Bipartisan Senate bill would protect small rural TV stations from being bumped off air by big stations' interference

A new bipartisan bill in Congress aims to strengthen protections for small, rural television stations. The Low Power Protection Act, introduced by Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), would increase spectrum rights for some low-power television stations.

"LPTV stations usually provide locally oriented or specialized service in their communities, the senators said. However, LPTV is currently considered a secondary broadcast service by the Federal Communications Commission. As such, LPTV licensees are not granted protections from harmful interference or displacement, and must accept harmful interference or displacement from full power television stations," George Winslow reports for TV Tech.

The bill builds on a 1999 law that opened a one-time filing window for LPTV stations to apply for Class A status. Class A stations are protected from being bumped off the air by harmful interference. The bill would require the FCC to open a new filing window for Class A status, Winslow reports.

"That, in turn, will help ensure they are able to continue providing local coverage, and allow them to better protect existing investment and incentivize further investment in their stations and communities, the Senators said," Winslow reports. "The bill has garnered support from numerous broadcast organizations and advocacy groups, including the LPTV Broadcasters Association, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Missouri Association of Broadcasters, the Oregon Association of Broadcasters, and the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Public Knowledge."

3G networks to shut down next year, disproportionately hurting rural seniors, poor; FCC is asked to stall the move

Rural Americans will be disproportionately affected when 3G wireless networks start shutting down in February. The move, meant to free up resources for 5G networks, will cut off phone and internet access for those who depend on the networks, and will also hamstring devices and services including life-alert systems, sensors that track school buses, court-ordered breathalyzers for convicted drunk drivers, and more, Cat Zakrzewski reports for The Washington Post. Nearly 20 percent of Americans were still on 3G networks as of 2018, according to market analysis firm OpenSignal. However, there is little current data on how many Americans still rely on devices that can only connect to 3G networks.

"Consumer advocates are urging the Federal Communications Commission to slow the change," Zakrzewski reports. "Older and low-income Americans are more likely to be affected by the shift, these advocates say. If they don’t upgrade in time, their phones and life-alert devices won’t be able to call 911 or other emergency services, government regulators warn."

Phone carriers don't want to slow the transition because they've warned about it for years and are trying to make sure their customers don't lose wireless access. Also, the old networks are far less profitable than newer networks. "AT&T, which plans to shutter its network in February, says it has reached out to affected customers and provided them with discounted or in some instances free phone upgrades," Zakrzewski reports. "Other networks, including T-Mobile, have delayed their shutdowns until slightly later to accommodate people who still haven’t upgraded: T-Mobile will shut down Sprint’s 3G network on March 31, 2022; Verizon has said it will shut down its network on Dec. 31, 2022."

The pandemic has complicated efforts to carry out the transition. Seniors, who often need technical support the most, have been leery of admitting service technicians from wireless carriers or home-alarm companies, and backed-up supply chains and a computer-chip shortage have made it difficult to replace old devices, Zakrzewski reports.

Law-enforcement officials have also pleaded with the FCC for more time to update electronic monitoring software for 3G-connected breathalyzers and bracelets for those convicted of crimes involving alcohol, Zakrzewski reports. The FCC hasn't intervened yet, but has done so before when it appeared that phasing out old technology would leave people vulnerable in an emergency.

Health IT experts urge Senate to make pandemic telehealth regs permanent; FCC vows to update broadband maps

Health-care internet technology experts told a Senate subcommittee Thursday that many rural hospitals won't be able to take advantage of telehealth services if they can't afford or access broadband internet. The Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband convened the hearing to examine barriers to telehealth access.

Deanna Larson, president of telehealth company Avel eCare, testified that affordability is the biggest barrier to broadband adoption, and urged lawmakers to broaden telehealth regulations so more hospitals can use it. "Larson urged Congress to extend or make permanent their regulatory flexibility toward telehealth especially as it relates to being neutral on the kinds of telemedicine, such as phone-only care, asynchronous care, and remote patient monitoring," Riley Steward reports for Broadband Breakfast, a site that advocates for better broadband access. "An economic benefit of which would be keeping medical commerce local, she said. Patients wouldn’t be required as often to move to a higher level of care out of town."

Widespread telehealth availability could save the health care system an estimated $305 billion a year, Federal Communications Commission member Brendan Carr said at the hearing, Steward reports. He also endorsed several Senate bills that would enhance telehealth access, including the bipartisan Protecting Rural Telehealth Access Act, which was introduced in June by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Terry Moran (R-Kan.).

The bill, along with its House companion, the Protecting Telehealth Access Act, focus on specific changes to telehealth that have proven successful during the pandemic, Eric Wicklund reports for mHealth Intelligence. Both bills call on Congress to allow audio-only telehealth appointments to receive the same payments as other appointments, permanently waive Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services geographic restrictions so patients can be treated in their homes, permanently allow rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers to provide telehealth services, and allow critical access hospitals to bill directly for telehealth services.

However, even if the bills pass, they can only help if hospitals can access affordable broadband. The FCC awards rural broadband buildout contracts to companies based on maps meant to identify who lacks broadband access. But those maps are inaccurate, a problem the commission has vowed to fix. Subcommittee members at the hearing pressed Carr to complete the improved maps so more rural areas can get the broadband access they need, Maria Curi reports for Bloomberg Law.

FCC plugs loopholes that let telecoms companies use rural broadband subsidies for urban areas

The Federal Communications Commission told SpaceX and other companies recently that "that the billions in rural broadband subsidies it doled out last year can’t be used in already connected areas like 'parking lots and well-served urban areas,' citing complaints," Joey Roulette reports for The Verge, a publication of Vox Media. "The commission, in an effort to 'clean up' its subsidy auction program, offered the companies a chance to rescind their funding requests from areas that already have service. The companies that got the subsidies must do the work to determine they qualify for the money."

SpaceX’s satellite internet network Starlink won $886 million last December as part of the FCC's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, a $9.2 billion auction meant to expand rural broadband. But the auction was riddled with wasteful spending and widespread data flaws, according to reports from the Competitive Carriers Association and consumer-advocacy group Free Press, Roulette reports. 

The Free Press report found that over $700 million in RDOF funds had been awarded to areas that already have broadband access. In particular, $111 million of SpaceX's share was going to "well-served urban areas and random patches of land with no infrastructure, from thin highway medians and empty patches of grass to New York City parking lots and big-box stores," Roulette reports. "The RDOF subsidies were announced under former FCC chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican who left office when President Biden became president."

Most internet service providers aren't participating in new federal discount program for low-income people

The Federal Communications Commission's new Emergency Broadband Benefit offers a discount for low-income residents, but many rural folks' internet providers aren't participating in the program. 

EBB gives people in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, or certain other benefit programs "a $50 discount on their monthly internet bill, or $75 if they reside on tribal lands," but fewer than half of the nation's internet providers are participating, Adilia Watson reports for The Daily Yonder.

"According to BroadbandNow, a company that finds and compares internet providers, there are 2,782 internet service providers in America," Watson reports. "Only about 1,100 are participating in the EBB program, according to an FCC spokesperson. An FCC Fixed Broadband Development map allows users to find providers all the way down to a town or city level."

Manistee County (Wikipedia map)

Watson focuses on the lack of participation by internet service providers in Manistee County, Michigan, which got $13 million in federal funds in 2019 to help those providers improve and expand local broadband service, according to the Manistee County Advocate.

Another possible issue: The program has no minimum speed requirement for broadband providers, so the government could end up subsidizing sub-par internet. The FCC defines broadband speed as 25 megabytes per second download and 3 Mbps upload.

Biden infrastructure plan and pandemic concerns bring more attention, possible solutions, to rural broadband gap

"Rural areas have complained for years that slow, unreliable or simply unavailable internet access is restricting their economic growth," Ben Casselman reports for The New York Times. "But the pandemic has given new urgency to those concerns, at the same time that President Biden’s infrastructure plan — which includes $100 billion to improve broadband access — has raised hope that the problem might finally be addressed."

Though many have criticized Biden for trying to expand the scope of infrastructure investment to child care, health care, and other areas beyond the traditional roads-and-bridges definition, "ensuring internet access is broadly popular," Casselman reports. "In a recent survey conducted for The New York Times by the online research platform SurveyMonkey, 78 percent of adults said they supported broadband investment, including 62% of Republicans. Businesses, too, have consistently supported broadband investment. Major industry groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers have all released policy recommendations in the last year calling for federal spending to help close the 'digital divide.'"

However, it's difficult to calculate the size of the digital divide and what it would cost to bridge because there isn't a widely agreed-upon definition for broadband. "The Federal Communications Commission in 2015 updated its standards to a minimum download speed of 25 megabits per second. The Department of Agriculture sets its standard lower, at 10 mbps. A bipartisan group of rural-state senators asked both agencies this year to raise their standards to 100 mbps," Casselman reports. "And speed-based definitions don’t take into account other issues, like reliability and latency, a measure of how long a signal takes to travel between a computer and a remote server." Further complicating the problem, it's unclear which rural areas lack broadband service because the FCC relies on faulty maps containing data self-submitted by telecommunications companies. 

"Regardless of definition, analyses consistently find that millions of Americans lack access to reliable high-speed internet access and that rural areas are particularly poorly served," Casselman reports. "A recent study by Broadband Now, an independent research group whose data is widely cited, found that 42 million Americans live in places where they cannot buy broadband internet service, most of them in rural areas."

Rural community leaders trying to attract younger workers say the lack of broadband makes such campaigns difficult. Marion County, near Des Moines, Iowa, is one such area. "Our ability to diversify our economic base is dependent on modern infrastructure, and that includes broadband," Mark Raymie, chairman of the county board of supervisors, told Casselman. "We can say, 'Come and work here.' But if we don’t have modern amenities, modern infrastructure, that sales pitch falls flat."

In upholding FCC rule on broadcast and newspaper ownership, Supreme Court expands list of possible buyers

The Supreme Court last week unanimously upheld a Federal Communications Commission decision to deregulate ownership of television stations, including the ownership of a station and a newspaper in the same market. For newspapers looking to sell, the ruling expands the list of potential buyers.

"The commission proposed the rule change in 2017 under Trump-appointed FCC chair Ajit Pai," Jody Simon reports for JDSupra. A lower court overturned the changes, saying the FCC didn't adequately consider the effect its changes would have on broadcast media ownership by women and racial minorities. but proponents of the changes "argued that they were long overdue," Simon reports. "Local TV and newspapers have long been facing stiff headwinds, first from cable competition and now from hyper-targeted digital advertising on Google and Facebook. The mom-and-pop broadcast outlets and local station groups would be doomed unless they can join deep-pocketed national station groups."

However, Simon writes, "the argument for continued diversity has its appeal, however, when one looks at Sinclair Broadcasting, a large station group that made headlines for forcing the news broadcasts of its stations to run right wing segments. Even short of a conservative takeover of local news, widespread consolidation could result in homogenization and the loss of independent voices."

Bipartisan bill in House aims to invest in rural areas, revive White House Rural Council that Trump disbanded

A newly reintroduced bipartisan House bill aims to bolster economic opportunities in rural America and reinstate the White House Rural Council that was disbanded in 2017.

Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) and a host of bipartisan sponsors first introduced the Transforming Hiring in Rural Industries and Vital Economies (THRIVE) Act in February 2020 but the bill didn't get anywhere. The co-sponsors for the current version are Reps. Hal Rogers, R-Ky.; Sanford Bishop, D-Ga.; Cheri Bustos, D-Ill.; Jim Costa, D-Calif.; Rick Crawford, R-Ark.; Jahana Hayes, D-Conn.; Ann Kuster, D-N.H.; Tom O'Halleran, D-Ariz.; Chris Pappas, D-N.H.; Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.; and Don Young, R-Alaska.

"Among the programs overseen by the Rural Council was the 'Livable Communities Initiative,' which supported local government efforts to improve transportation and develop housing in small towns," according to a press release from Rogers, who represents Kentucky's Fifth District, one of the nation's most rural. "The Council also worked in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education to provide online educational resources for teachers and students in rural communities, which was bolstered at the time by a $2 billion commitment by the Federal Communications Commission for broadband deployment across the country. Additionally, the Rural Council launched the National Water Quality Initiative to work with farmers to improve conservation of working lands and ensure they can be used for years to come."