 Well, good morning everyone or it's morning here on the East Coast 11 o'clock in the morning Thank you everyone who's joining in both on live on YouTube as well as Here on our zoom portal for those folks who were able and are continuing to come into our zoom portal my name is Chris Lewis. I'm the president and CEO at public knowledge and We are really glad to be able to host this hour-long webinar about connectivity during the corona virus Pandemic and I am very lucky to have three expert panelists with me who are going to help us go through Not only what's been done so far, but what can be done to continue to make sure that Americans are connected To essential communications networks during these emergency and hopefully into the future and with future emergencies So I'm joined today by three expert panelists first from the Benton Foundation Senior fellow John Salot and John is also a former general counsel at the Federal Communications Commission Also with us is the founder and executive director of the Shelby Coalition John Windhausen We have two John's so I'll be using their first names or excuse me their full names And then from public knowledge our senior vice president Harold Feld is also with us So thank you gentlemen for taking the time out to do this We're gonna do a few Questions with our expert panelists for this webinar and then we'll have some time at the end Reserve for questions from participants So as we go along if you're in the zoom portal, please go ahead and feel free to enter questions in To the portal and I'll be picking some out as we go along hopefully get us at some other topics or some clarifications and I won't be identifying who asked the question so that folks don't be shy about asking anything There's no questions that are too dumb or too provocative and we'll do our best to get to as many as possible again, so let's get started and first question to all three of you guys is You know the FCC a couple of weeks ago acted to Put together a pledge with broadband providers. It's called the keep Americans connected pledge had three basic parts asking them not to terminate service to residents or businesses if they were late on their pay for for their service it waived late fees for for those customers And it also was a pledge to open up Wi-Fi hotspots to anyone in America who needs them And then it had some other suggested things along with it that were not part of the pledge But when you guys have been reading and hearing about this pledge Is there one thing that comes to mind that you would have liked to see in the FCC do That you think they have the power to do and why don't we start with John Windhouse? Well, thanks Chris. That's a pleasure to be here with you and with everybody I mean, yeah, the FCC did a good made a good first step to get these commitments from the private sector not to disconnect people And I was pleased that chairman pie jumped on that right away. It's similar to what other Regulators have done with other industries So it was a good first step much more needs to be done And I'd say one thing that the FCC could now do which they haven't done yet But what we're hoping that they would do is to allow schools and libraries and other anchor institutions to extend their signals Beyond the building to reach people at home particularly now as the schools and libraries are largely closed They're not using their broadband to its fullest extent at their location And there's really some capacity a lot of broadband capacity to those institutions And we'd love to share that with the surrounding community Where you know people are sheltering in place at home So that's where the broadband needs to be and we think the FCC could do more in order to promote that broadband connectivity to the home for Education and learning great and tell health John salad one thing for the FCC. Yes We have an enormous spike in unemployment insurance claims Today the report came out that there were three point three million claims made in the last week made last week And that's the highest in US history and we've got to think about eligibility for lifeline in terms of the spike in unemployment We in the Benton report we issued last year urged that eligibility be reexamined and be simplified For example to be made automatic. So with this spike in unemployment We should be thinking about how to make sure lifeline reaches people who need it right away For example, we should think about whether somebody who is getting unemployment insurance should be immediately Eligible for lifeline for the period of time that he or she is getting that insurance Because we do not want Dislocation and employment to turn out to be separation from society And then Harold do you have anything that to add for the FCC? Thanks. The first thing I would point out is because of the FCC's unfortunate decision to reclassify broadband as an information service rather than as a Telecommunication service, which we're all seeing now that yeah, this is an essential service that everybody needs to have their options are severely limited so there is just somewhat limited authority to do what needs to be done but one of the things they certainly can do in addition to what Both John Windhausen and John Salad have Pointed to is gathering information Everybody is acknowledging that the network is under stress excuse me that We need to see where the weak points are in the network not Because anybody's at fault here, but because Excuse me But because we need to prepare Both for the weeks ahead as the strain on the network continues and for the Next crisis that may occur Take a moment there and we'll certainly come back to that topic But why don't we go to the next question so we've also seen action from Congress just late last night Congress past the third in their coronavirus Stimulus bills some people are calling it and We did see a few small things in there, but not what a lot of the advocacy community was asking for Around broadband and connectivity, you know, there were some cramped estates to provide connectivity And purchase devices There was some digital inclusion money There was You know some telehealth money a little bit telehealth money in there for the FCC and for some pilot programs around telehealth But we didn't see a lot more Are there things that you think that Congress missed an opportunity on and should be considered? Is there one major thing that you would recommend that would be considered or any next bill that they pass around the coronavirus John Windhausen, why don't you start us off? Well, thanks Chris. It was disappointing that Congress did not include more broadband provisions into the third stimulus bill but we do understand that they're working on a fourth bill right now and I Don't have one thing. I have five things to recommend So really quickly they really need to address the shortage of hotspots I think that provides a really good first next step in trying to promote broadband connectivity but they need to Appropriate money to manufacture them because there just aren't enough hotspots to go around and that funding needs to be made available now Because it takes 10 to 12 weeks to produce them Hotspots work well when there is a good cellular signal, but in a lot of rural areas, there isn't a good enough cellular signal We recommend that schools should be able to get EBS licenses That's the educational broadband service so they could deploy wireless signals in these rural markets There also needs to be a couple of billion dollars more for telehealth networks This appropriation or the third coronavirus bill gave a lot of money to health, but not for telehealth And so we're going to be recommending some significant additional funding for the FCC's rural health care program to speed rural health Broadband connectivity because the hospitals are getting overwhelmed with people using up their beds and soon the telehealth Networks are going to be overwhelmed as well. So they need more broadband Fourth there needs to be a very large infrastructure package to build for the long run We should be deploying high capacity future-proof networks now We should have done this the national broadband plan called for that by 2020 and we didn't get that done So we really need to urge Congress to appropriate that money to build for the future To avoid the next so we're prepared for the next crisis and then last we need more money for digital equity We did get the 50 million for IMLS and that was positive But we really need 500 million dollars for IMLS to promote digital equity through the libraries Anything to add for Congress Yes Let me take it in two parts as as John has Well, we didn't see in the bill to passed yesterday Was dedicated funding for kids to be connected to do their homework or older students or college students of The hot spots are an important way to solve an interim problem as John has has explained We don't have to rely however on only one solution. John's already said their problems with the supply of hot spots So we should be thinking in the short term about how to get K through 12 kids connected through hot spots through subsidies for fixed broadband connections through allowing educational institutions to reach into their neighborhoods more effectively The bill also didn't deal with Lifeline right now and we'll come back to this. I think Chris lifeline funds either fixed or mobile But 90% of it is used for mobile People need a fixed connection people need both and then looking forward to the fourth stimulus bill to an infrastructure bill Without going to all the details and maybe we'll come back to this What we think is Congress needs to act comprehensively Fund deployment where there is no broadband and it's got to be scalable future proof Broadband we we start with 100 megs down and 100 megs up symmetrical. It needs to help competition for example by Ensuring that the 30% of Americans that live in multi-tenant environments can get choice or Also preempting laws that ban municipalities from experimenting with broadband It needs to deal more comprehensively with affordability and adoption And to the work that John has led the public interest community and doing it needs to empower community anchor institutions For example to serve as launching pads for residential broadband built into neighborhoods That's a big package and there'll be a lot of discussion in the days ahead But it's going to be critical that if we spend a lot of money this year That the money be put to its best use over the long term Okay, so let's pivot because we we have started to get into some of the weeds of some of these ideas and and I want to Turn to Harold because Harold you did put forward a proposal around You know for a short-term emergency like we're in right now A concept or where there could be a direct subsidy to all Americans to cover the cost of broadband Am I describing that actually why don't you give folks the details of that plan right and one of the things about this is I've proposed and we public knowledge of proposed that For the duration of the crisis we should now all recognize that It's not just that everybody needs broadband to participate. It's that society is a whole benefits when Everyone is connected. So this is in fact a Two-way street. It's not just the benefits to the individual that we should be, you know Looking to help out those who aren't paying for it We should be making sure that everybody has it because we're all gonna benefit from having everybody Online during this crisis and not just frankly during this crisis, but afterwards as well But certainly for this price is when we're trying to make sure that everybody stays at home We've proposed that the government should just pick up the tab To get everybody online and connected and to ensure Basic broadband. I mean think of this as a form of health insurance, but for your broadband connection if you're The government can pay $50 a month to each ISP that'll ensure that the ISPs get paid and that we keep employees on the payroll for a basic broadband package something like Hopefully better than the 25-3 that the FCC Describes as broadband something, you know, that would really support the two-way communication that you need But the idea is that for the next couple of months where we need everybody at home Everybody who we can connect because as others have pointed out the infrastructure isn't reaching everywhere should be connected and We can do that for about five to six billion dollars a month, which Is not something you'd want to do forever, but certainly if we looked at it as We're gonna support the broadband industry and make sure that all the small independent Broadband providers don't go out of business and even the large ones or the mid-sized ones don't have to take a huge hit and Furlough workers or layoff workers if we said that's gonna be 18 billion to support the broadband industry People would be a lot more supportive that perhaps than saying it's gonna be $50 a month of stimulus to each individual But the great thing about this is we're gonna make $50 into a hundred dollars. We're gonna make everybody Connected and we're gonna support critical infrastructure. So, you know, this is a win-win-win proposal for Congress to To just go all in on what everybody agrees is an essential service for getting through this Great tongue salad We talked briefly about lifeline and you know the lifeline program if folks are not familiar is a long-standing subsidy Program for low-income Americans To get access to telephone and hopefully broadband services, although it's been anchored to telephone service for years Can you talk about some of the details that you'd like to see? in changing or increasing that subsidy The most fundamental is we live in a society now where people need both mobile and fixed Obviously mobility is important parents at work want to reach their kids wherever they are But fixed broadband is very important Think of people at home today think of the people who are watching us right now do this webinar using streaming video Sometimes in households with people with kids doing their homework or college students in online classes People seeking health care if they're isolated so Congress should face the fact that we now need both and Low-income people can't afford a lot. We've reviewed the social science in our Benton report and it's ten or fifteen dollars a month so We think what needs to happen is that Congress should Ensure the lifeline also has a fixed broadband subsidy That brings costs to roughly ten dollars a month it make that subsidy should support broadband that really Meets the need But we used we sometimes we've debated about whether broadband was must have but today We know it's need now people need it now and they need it to be robust So we've suggested for example That that subsidy should go to a service that's symmetrical 50 50 or the highest up or down speeds the network provides if it's lower than that Next we should require the federally funded networks become lifeline providers and Chris public knowledge came out with a great suggestion recently to wave rules the ETC rules they're called they keep consumers from applying their discounts to major cable systems. That's very important and then it's really important that Congress ensure the lifeline can support broadband a legal question that is currently in doubt on remand because of the net neutrality order and the DC circuit saying that the Commission had completely failed to explain how its authority Under section 254 could extend to broadband and then one last point Eligibility I talked about this a moment ago in terms of unemployment reaching people who are getting unemployment Insurance we have to make sure that eligibility is expanded as we needed I said three point three people had million people had filed for unemployment Insurance so the numbers are going to go up, but here's another number Right now only about 20% of eligible people are using life long So if numbers spike and the usage demand spikes Lifeline will get bigger and it will be very important that Congress ensures that it is fully and completely funded Great. Thanks for the acknowledgement of the public knowledge proposal. I appreciate it and also noting the importance of Symmetric service that you know, yes 50 up or 50 down Upload and download speeds which a lot of folks forget about because it hasn't been Symmetric speed does not been the standard over the years, but when we're talking about real-time video The symmetric symmetric speeds that's needed to accomplish that which gives you live video conferencing for companies or live Online classes for students and the like right and don't listen as well. Yes Why don't we turn to John Windhouse and John Windhouse and Like to get more details from you about the e-rate program as someone who is one of the strongest advocates for connecting schools and libraries Can you walk us through a bit about how you'd like to see E-rate change and the details I know it's been a fun that we've wanted to make sure is protected over the years and so people are wary of when you start talking about changes Well, that's right Chris the e-rate program has been tremendously successful in Connecting schools and libraries and the reforms made by the FCC over the last decade have really allowed schools and libraries to upgrade Their connectivity very substantially and the FCC's endorsement of special construction and fiber Connectivity has been fabulous Now I think we're at the next stage of looking at e-rate How can we share that capacity with the community because after all the anchor institutions are there not just for themselves but to serve the public and We think that there are some things that the FCC can do under the current statutory language To make that capacity shared more broadly with the surrounding residential and small business consumers So for instance the FCC just did issue a nice clarification a couple of days ago that said schools and libraries should keep their Wi-Fi on So that even if the building is closed to keep the Wi-Fi on so you can still use it on campus That's what the FCC said we would like them to go further and say you could actually use it off-campus as well And we don't think the statute precludes that the statutory language for the e-rate program Does say it's needs to be for educational purposes But that doesn't mean only for educational purposes It could also be as long as it's primarily for education It can be shared on a secondary basis or an ancillary basis with the the surrounding community And we suggest the FCC should explicitly endorse that policy Having said that There's even more that should be done beyond extending that And there is a question about whether the e-rate program is the best program for getting broadband all the way to the home And there are two different strains of thought We agree with both Nope, there's there's a line a strain of thought that said look e-rate is already set up. It's a program That's already in operation. Let's fund it increase the funding to to explicitly fund to the home I worry a little bit about the ability of the forms and the application Processes that USAC administers for the e-rate program aren't really well designed The handle applications to bring broadband to the home So there's another strain of thought that says yes, there needs to be more funding But it shouldn't go through e-rate We should really design the program to provide broadband connectivity straight to the home as Harold just talked about and maybe that's not e-rate Maybe it's a new fund within the FCC's Universal Service Fund umbrella, but I don't want to quibble about you know, which program is best suited whether it's e-rate or a new program The overriding objective is we need broadband everywhere. It should be ubiquitous. It should be affordable It should be open to the general public and accessible and We've very strongly support the idea that the e-rate program can the FCC can do more under the existing statute to make that available Great. Thank you, John. So Harold you are probably our panel's greatest expert on spectrum policy and And a lot of people, you know, we talked about the importance of both, you know wired and mobile connections You know, can you go give us a couple ideas about how spectrum can help increase Access to broadband some of the changes we might be able to make Right and we're seeing Right now in the field two things that are very important one is we Desperately need more unlicensed spectrum to support Wi-Fi 6 The amount of capacity we need if you read all of these Articles that have been coming about out in the last couple of days about the strain on the networks One of the things you read about is how do you like make your Wi-Fi? Better and more efficient because we've got all this congestion here and if you have good Connectivity coming into your house and then it hits the Wi-Fi access point that slows down That's not doing you a lot of good. So the first thing that has to happen is we've got two proceedings in front of the FCC The six gigahertz proceeding the five dot nine gigahertz proceeding the FCC should move very quickly On those so that we can get these new devices out, but we're also seeing that the I guess what we would call flexibility in spectrum use. We've seen the FCC authorize use for the wireless carriers to use unused spectrum that dish is using to build out its network and That's helped them to meet the challenges because wireless networks are also experiencing this huge Surge so And you know why wireless hotspots once we have them if we're loading all this traffic on them We're going to need number one the Wi-Fi spectrum so that all those devices can connect to the wireless hotspot And then we're going to need the license spectrum for the wireless hotspot to connect to the wireless network. So How do we increase that flexibility? We need Something that we've been pushing for years in this area that's called user share Where if there's spectrum that is not currently in use The yeah, even if it's license spectrum the licensee would make that available through a database and say hey, I'm not using this yet People can use it until I indicate that I'm actually gonna be using it and then let Those who need it come in and say, okay Well, let's use that until you who actually have the license for it are ready to deploy So it doesn't you know just lie their fellow We can also do a lot of things that the FCC can do right now without breaking this kind of new ground So for example, we have systems in rural areas where We have problems with Just we haven't got enough towers deployed We could do things like temporary Authority to increase power levels in these areas so that We could You know have stronger broadband available we can move to make You know more tv white spaces available and allow for regional You know higher power to Because we know that there isn't a lot of tv signal out there that we're interfering with and that sort of thing Can make an enormous difference in areas where these are the The only connectivity that's there is provided by a local wireless isp Or is provided to people who have cellular networks, particularly from independent rural Cellular networks and we should look at how we can boost their power in the short term. This is Something that the FC did in FCC did in Katrina They waived a lot of the rules around tower siting around Power levels and you know really moved expeditiously and I think We can do a lot of that here the FCC is doing some of that now and I think we can do a lot more Great and john windhousing quickly. I know public knowledge. We've worked with you And others to support expanding access to spectrum for Schools and educational institutions as well. Can you give us an update on? On that topic the the EBS spectrum management school Yes, thanks chris. I mentioned that earlier and if I could just expound on that a little bit The educational broadband service spectrum has been dedicated for educational uses since the 1960s And we would love to be able to preserve that Benefit and I think the educational need is even greater now with this crisis and students We don't have connectivity at the school now need that connectivity at home and the 2.5 gigahertz spectrum where the EBS band is is very amenable to Providing that connectivity and providing high bandwidth to those consumers um, we need the The licenses to be issued to the schools though and these educational institutions The private sector already has the substantial amount of spectrum in these rural markets that they're not using And so they've had a chance to deploy it but where the cell phone signals aren't strong enough You need to give those licenses to entities that have a real incentive to solve that problem And we think the schools and the state educational agencies and the non-profit educational institutions their mission Is to solve that homework app Now our measure of the homework app is somewhere between six and seven million Students at home don't have broadband others or say 12 million Whatever the number is it's a really large number 10 to 20 percent of all school children don't have access at home So that is a really significant problem and the EBS spectrum Some people telling me that is this over bullet for some of these rural markets That the technology is available off the shelf. It's tried and true There are several school systems that have already deployed it successfully And so that could be a really low cost way But the schools need a license and the FCC has the power Unfortunately, the FCC chose not to give it to the schools in an order from last Summer the Shelby coalition filed a petition for reconsideration A few months ago asking the FCC to take another look at that and that's that second look is even more vitally important now Because that could be a really great way to solve this homework app in a very short period of time Fantastic John salad you touched on this In our first round of of kind of early topics, but I'd love to hear more from you about Your ideas around because you've I know you've written about this as well in some of your papers At the Benton foundation But your ideas around how we make sure that all consumers have real choices And competition in the marketplace for broadband, you know, I know there are studies show that Just so many consumers really just have maybe one or two options for broadband I know I only have one option for high speed broadband where I live and it's not it's not a rural area either So John can you tell us more about that? Sure. Thank you, Chris It's true Chris the latest FCC data we've seen says something like 80 percent of Americans Have either one provider, which means no choices Or two providers, which means one I attended a citizens group in the community. You live in chris a couple of weeks ago Because people there with one Want to figure out how to get the benefits of competition and they know competition brings prices lower Brings quality higher brings innovation faster So this things congress can do to promote competition. Let me go through just a few One is to preempt state laws that bar municipalities from experimenting with broadband deployment This isn't to say every community should do it and it's certainly not to say there's only one way What's interesting and we talk about it in our report is how many different kinds of models there are around the country of public private collaboration But that experimentation at the local level is critical Secondly I mentioned this before 30 percent of Americans Live in multi tenant environments That could be in a classic apartment house. It could be a gated community in some places It could be all sorts of pieces for places with this common ownership and multiple tenancies Or residences The FCC has been thinking about this but there's a package of things that could be done Basically to make sure that people in their homes can exercise choice that they're not locked into a particular provider thirdly When federal funding comes particular for example in the stimulus bill number four It needs to fund last mile and as I said before scalable last mile that will meet the demands of the decade But it should also make sure that there's open access middle mile networks Because those are the networks they can go deep into a community to schools or libraries And lower the cost of build out to residential areas that are nearby a school in a neighborhood Is an obvious launching pad for competition fourth We should stop talking about overbuilding Because it's obscuring the issue and isn't saying what's going on In the stimulus package that was passed last night there's a hundred million dollars for the usa reconnect program It's an important program But it has this quality it only puts funds into places that Have ten one service or lower now The FCC's current definition of broadband is 25 3 So we have a broadband blind spot people between 10 1 and 25 3 and according to FCC data There's something like 10 million americans there It it doesn't make sense to exclude them It does make sense to have prioritization right build places where there's no Reasonable broadband and then go to places that have some and there are states that are doing that But it doesn't make sense to have uh none at all and so with with these with these kinds of efforts And I should say the states include places like minnesota that prioritize And others other steps congress can open up markets to more competition, which is the best way consumers benefit Okay, uh, we're going to do a couple more and then we'll turn to questions The folks who are watching using the zoom portal, please don't be shy about entering questions into the q&a Function and I'll be picking questions out of there. We already have some coming in So we appreciate those but before we turn to that a couple more up first with herald You know there There's a lot of talk about you know this emergency right now and what we need to do to make sure that People are connected, you know right now during times when they're Social distancing and teleworking from home But are there lessons that we should be learning during this period for future emergencies? or for Just for everyday broadband And and how do we learn those lessons? Can you talk to us a bit about the idea of what data needs to be collected? Well, yes, I mean everyone has been referring to this as the stress test of the internet and our broadband infrastructure and It's important not just that this be graded on a pass fail But that we actually learn from it so that we can prepare We can see the places where our national infrastructure is weak and needs to be upgraded and we can Find all of the potential choke points in the network And looking at this we can see essentially three Primary places where there are likely to be choke points in the network The first as I mentioned earlier is the wi-fi access point. This is where most of us are connecting to our network or if you're using a mobile device on one of the Wireless carriers. This will be at the tower. There are natural limits Just based on what spectrum is available. We need to see what's happening with congestion. We need to verify how this is working You know Learn so that we can understand what behavior is like in these sorts of situations how people are Accessing the internet and what? Kind of a spectrum balance. We need to be striking going forward Next is how is the last mile operating the different types of technology? I mean everybody is sort of generally saying well, you know fiber will be fine Upgraded cable will be fine older dsl systems or older cable systems will struggle We need to know we need to know how this is working out. We need to see With real data what how the networks are handling particularly how They're handling the massive surge in upstream traffic as well as the even You know cable networks like that are running docsis 3 and have been upgraded are still designed on an asymmetric model rather than A symmetric model and as we're seeing a lot more symmetric traffic We are going to need to See how the networks handle that And This is all going to be important data We will see essentially sort of a heat map if you will of where we have Strong networks and good broadband and where we need to upgrade our national network Finally and one of the trickiest point is the interconnection points the places where these last mile networks are handing off to the cloud these are The places that are most vulnerable to this kind of surge traffic and have the widest impact If people remember five years ago when we had The netflix dispute with a number of the largest isps where netflix was Coming in through the interconnection points and the isps were refusing to upgrade and That standoff slowed all incoming traffic because it's like a tidal wave hitting A sewer grate it just can't all flow through at once And those are the places where we've seen in europe reports of a lot of stress Where it would be important to know what capacity we have so that Since That's a place where it's hard to expand physical capacity And balance capacity in a short term surge We're gonna need to see once the data is in Whether our current Architecture can handle it and if not what we need to do in order to make sure we can handle these sorts of emergencies going forward Great and and to piggyback on that john salad, you know, uh speaking of what the networks can handle You know one of the not the core parts of the fcc's Voluntary to keep america connected pledge, but one of the recommendations was around lifting data caps And we've written about data caps for years of public knowledge are concerned that they can be used in any competitive ways They should be looked at by the fcc But we're seeing a lot of the the providers in this emergency lifting their data caps What can we learn from that? You know and is this something that should be investigated further about how data caps impact traffic on the network Data caps have been a focus of attention from the sec for a long time, right? It was a past merger Where the fcc was concerned that data caps could be used by an incumbent cable provider to prevent Cable substitutes from coming over the internet, right? So How they operate and whether they benefit consumers is important. Let's talk about fixed broadband networks, which have significant capacity um The fcc should be understanding what happens with the networks It ought to be looking at What kind of data caps there are so let me make two points one is We have carriers doing good things right now Comcast team mobile chart or dish. I'm sure I'm leaving some out by mistake, but really good actions Including open access networks, for example wi-fi or cable access during the emergency What's the emergency? How long is the emergency? This is going to turn out to be an important question when society starts to reopen But still very many people are likely to be working from home or there are College kids who are not going back to campuses Is that still going to be the emergency the fcc ought to be talking to carriers to make sure that The solutions last as long as the problem And that may not be a binary cutoff that one day people go to work and another day They don't or one day non-essential businesses are closed in the next day. They're open The second thing the fcc Should do and this goes right back to the really important comments that harrell just made The fcc talks to carriers every day Or they should be the carriers are paying a lot of attention to the demands on their networks When demand is high when it's low how they're managing their bandwidth The fcc should be talking to the carriers And they should be working out What's going on in the networks so they can tell us We need to know What the networks can handle what they're doing to increase capacity That will tell us what we can do at home And it will go to the question you rightly asked which is Have we learned that data caps on fixed broadband networks just aren't justified anymore? Okay, thank you john and uh, and you know it I think it was I think it was john windhausen who noted earlier You know how long it's been I think it's about been about 10 years since We passed the or since the fcc created the national broadband plan And we've been talking about getting the entire country connected to broadband For many many years not just that decade, but even before that And so to see you know this issue raised up as Important in this crisis just shows us how much further we have to go There was an article in the new york times This morning about how folks are seeing because of the traffic There are some anecdotes out there about Adjustments needing to be made to video in order for everyone to be able to Use the network and so these are sorts of things that you know, I really hope the fcc will study And as we figure out how to get better broadband deployed to everyone Really raise standards so that everyone can Can choose to tell the work or choose to take advantage of broadband even when we're not in an emergency We're going to turn to some questions from Our audience Please continue to put them into the the q&a Portal, but i'm going to take a few here and the first one probably john windhouse is probably perfect for you This person talks about how at the local level A lot of folks are relying on various low income Home internet offers Which are very helpful for k12 students As well as they're relying on public wi-fi in some communities And so this person asks What else might be available for individuals who might fall through the cracks? For reasons of ineligibility or impracticality They highlight seniors and college students Well, this I think gets to the digital digital literacy training digital equity component because Yes, there is a The industry are some of the industry members are offering some discounted plans for for low income people and That's that's great when they're doing so not every provider is actually doing that And even when the carriers and providers are making those discount Offerings available. They're not advertising them very well. And so there's a lack of awareness And especially for seniors who are already sometimes intimidated by this technology You know getting over that hump of trying to figure out how to make a broadband how to sign up for broadband connection How to get the devices to work? It can be very daunting and this is not just a local problem. This is a national problem You know, it's gets back to the network effects the more people who are on the network the more everybody benefits So we ought to be taking this on as a national priority To make sure that people have the education that they need and the training they need and the devices and the software And work with people that can help set them up Libraries in particular have done a very good job of making their training available to The people in their jurisdictions, but of course now the libraries are often closed So how can we fill that gap? Well, that's why we need Some additional funding to help promote these awareness campaigns and the efforts of local digital inclusion Offices around the united states and the IA the national digital inclusion alliance is a great organization that has captured Hundreds of these local organizations and they're all working with different communities Those who speak different languages and senior communities low-income communities But their needs tend to vary based upon their local circumstances And so we shouldn't try to design a one-size-fits-all national approach But we do need the federal government can Provide the funding to these local organizations and that is so important these days I think the anchor institutions are well positioned to be helpful But the schools for instance right now are really Working hard to develop the digital content to be able to provide students online Education and the schools are dealing with distributing lunches So those are two essential functions that the schools now have to reorient their operations to deal with this crisis situation so The schools themselves may not be in the best position to do a whole lot of digital literacy digital training work That's where the libraries really come in and other community support organizations So we're very hopeful as I mentioned in this next Stimulus bill the fourth stimulus bill that we really need to get some federal funding flowing and it needs to fund To flow quickly, you know, this is not something that should be okay Let's set up a long rulemaking process to figure this out. This really needs to be expedited To get this information in the hands and get people connected as quickly as possible Great and and nice shout out to our friends at the national digital inclusion alliance Public knowledge had the pleasure of working with them just over a year ago On a tool that I think is available on their website Uh that you can share in your local communities. It's about the different low income Broadband programs that are available And talks a bit about the policies around low income broadband access. So definitely recommend it For folks who are looking to share that information in their communities Harold here's one that I think, you know, would be really helpful for you to weigh in on One of the viewers asks So they're asking about the FCC processes, which I know you're very experienced with And asking if it makes sense for the FCC because of the COVID-19 emergency to pause Their their comment periods and some of their processes around proceedings Either because of connectivity issues or just because of the emergency generally I don't know if you have any views on that Well, it depends. Um, you know, I certainly think that There are A number of factors here first where there are non critical Proceedings just the strain on FCC staff who are working from home and Like everyone else are Short staffed and are having difficulty And they yeah, so non critical work should certainly yeah be put on hold where possible the Proceedings where I think it would That are close to Conclusion, um, you know, there's no reason why yeah where those Shouldn't be yeah wrapped up Or where they're important to the current crisis like the Yeah, uh, six gigahertz order that everybody has been hoping will be on the april agenda And which would allow what would have immediate impact Should move forward, uh, but uh, things like the You know what the the kind of routine business that the FCC does You want to put that on hold? Allow staff to shift to processing Emergency, yeah, special temporary authorities or other temporary requests Allow the routine filing of reports to be suspended because staff at your television and cable Broadcasters are just not going to be Available in the usual way to fill these out. The FCC has done this in the past with regard to their National disasters or regional disasters so Certainly it would make sense for the FCC to just issue A kind of blanket list of all of these deadlines are Or just automatically delayed two months and You know the FCC will take will prioritize the following types of requests Thank you, Harold John salad You're probably perfect for this one as a former general counsel at the FCC Uh, we have a viewer who is asking about the FCC's authority Uh, you know, I noted that the keep america or yeah keep america connected plan was voluntary It was a request by the FCC and we're we're glad that so many providers have voluntary voluntarily barely, uh, excuse me voluntarily participated in it Uh, but this person asks does the FCC have subpoena power or what power does it have to Push network providers to take actions to provide data that that's sort of them I think I'm providing data. Well, first of all, I think if the FCC needs data to understand what's happening to the nation's broadband networks, the carriers will provide it voluntarily But to answer the hypothetical question the legal question Uh section four i of the communications act is important. It's not much talked about But here's what it says The commission may perform any and all acts Make such rules and regulations and issue such orders not inconsistent with this act as as may be necessary in the execution of its functions now clearly The FCC has need for information To assess whether it takes action Information about how broadband networks are handling capacity for example The recent orders the FCC put out giving temporary access to spectrum Was based on its understanding of the needs of the networks these days So an order if it came to it, which I don't think it would an order under section four i To collect the information necessary so the FCC can make judgments would be completely within the ambit of the communications act Okay, thank you And folks we got about five minutes left and really there are new dumb questions to throw them in there And we'll see how many more we can get to Harold This this question makes me think of you, but if others want to weigh in as well Please there's questions about existing networks resiliency That uh, you know if we are working to flatten the curve And shelter in place over a long period of time. What can be done to harden networks? Make sure that power supply to them Is is stable. We've seen networks go down in natural disasters But we've also also seen communities where networks have Gone out and the network has not been maintained Well by the network provider so harold can you weigh in on the reliability or resiliency of the network? Well, yes, I think that Um It's critically important here and i'll say this is one of the reasons why we've opposed the e-frontier Act which was ted cruises Act that says the government can't be involved the federal government can't be involved in the provision of any kind of wholesaler retail Broadband network because one of the steps that we can take is there's a lot of febrile fiber out there where There are shortages of Fiber networks to carry the traffic where networks are being overloaded. It may be possible for federal networks or state networks to step up and step in so oftentimes these networks are prohibited from Providing any kind of private service by their terms of service and But in this crisis You know every state and all of the federal agencies should be looking to see how they can support the local providers to See what can be done to promote network resiliency It's also the case that I would urge all state governors and others to consider network repair crews to be essential personnel That of course this means that they should also receive whatever protective gear is necessary the in order to protect themselves from infection but We need to understand that these are essential services and to the extent that You know crews can be mobilized In the same way that we mobilize them during Natural disaster Then they should be One of the biggest problems is that as we see these Where the network is weak to the extent that we can very quickly deploy Wireless links or other things to supplement existing Rotting copper networks that should be encouraged and facilitated and We should you know do everything in our power to make sure that Where we are finding that networks are failing That we act quickly to prop them up and have the crews to do so Great. Thank you. Harold and one more quick one. Um, and then we will wrap things up I don't know if anyone I'll open it up if any of you three on the panel want to talk about it But there's a comment here about the importance of waivers and expedited local permitting for broadband providers Which has been you know controversial between the FCC and local Communities and their local elected officials over the last year or so Can you talk about how that helps? But also are there counterbalancing concerns there? Who would like to tackle that? No volunteers Harold No, okay. Yeah, you know, I think that all communities are very eager to be working together here Certainly, yeah communities ought to be Considering what they can do To waive short-term requirements In order to facilitate You know A deployment of new infrastructure where it's necessary to move things along at the same time This shouldn't just be an excuse to You know run rough shot over You know necessary processes So for everyone, it's a balancing act I think this is the sort of thing that really should be left to state and local authorities rather than The FCC trying to do some kind of blanket You know Move because the situation will be so you know Unique in every local. I mean, it's really going to be a case by case sort of decision and It's exactly the kind of thing that the FCC is not set up to handle and should not be Addressed through some kind of blanket rule John Winghouse, and I know you have probably folks you work with that want rapid deployment Maybe concerned about this Well, it is a balance that you have to strike between those, you know We want these networks to be deployed quickly But we also don't want a federal one-size-fits-all solution or mandate on the access to rights of way So but there does need to be encouragement for local officials to make those rights away available on a non-discriminatory basis But having said that chris could I make one last point on telehealth? We are out of time. Can you do it in 30 seconds? I can yes There are four universal service fund programs that the FCC administers the rural health care program is the smallest of those four And that's really unfortunate The current applications were filed last june Before anyone knew that there was going to be this corona virus crisis So the rural health providers really need the authority to upgrade their broadband capacity right now Immediately in order to be able to handle this and this is something that the FCC and congress really need to take on immediately Thank you, john. Thank you for that plug I want to thank john salad john leanhausen Public knowledge his own herald feld for doing this hour-long webinar with us I want to flag for folks out there who may be watching who are You know outside the beltway and want to weigh in we have an action at public knowledge if you go to www.publicknowledge.org Slash fund our broadband You can use that to contact congress and tell them just how important it is to put All of these sorts of broadband proposals Into the next wave that we're expecting the next stimulus bill around the coronavirus You can also check out john windhausen john. Uh, do you have a website to plug? Sure, it's shlb.org For the shelby coalition and john solid you're at the benton foundation Oh, you got a john's muted Sorry, john. I think I might have No, no, no, I was too. I was too excited at the possibility of answering the question chris I didn't unmute myself. Yes benton institute for broadband and society at benton.org We've got materials up from our report dealing with the issues that have been discussed today Great. We love your latest report. Uh, folks should go there and check it out. Uh, and of course Is available at the public knowledge website as well as this wonderful wet machine blog that I know, uh, the real nerds love to read So thank you for that herald Folks, we appreciate you tuning in and hopefully we'll be able to do more of these as we are Uh sequestered in our various locations throughout the pandemic, but thank you and we'll talk to you Thank you