Pai Extracts Broadband Pledge From ISPs During COVID-19; Critics Want More

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai got pledges from top ISPs, including all major carriers and cable operators plus telcos, to keep everyone online for the next 60 days amid the coronavirus. Pai spoke with the companies Thursday, he said Friday; see our report here. Companies and trade associations endorsed the pledge. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks said that's a good start, but the agency needs to do more.

The companies pledged to not cut off residential or small-business customers unable to pay their bills because of disruptions tied to the virus. They agreed to waive late fees and to open Wi-Fi hot spots to anyone.

Pai asked companies with low-income programs, like the Connect2Compete program, “to expand and improve them … and those without to adopt such programs,” the FCC said: “He also called on broadband providers to relax their data cap policies in appropriate circumstances, on telephone carriers to waive long-distance and overage fees in appropriate circumstances, on those that serve schools and libraries to work with them on remote learning opportunities, and on all network operators to prioritize the connectivity needs of hospitals and healthcare providers.”

The commission needs to “get to work to connect schoolchildren,” Rosenworcel said: “We can use our universal service powers to provide hotspots for loan for students whose school doors have closed.” The agency needs to help on connecting hospitals and patients, similar to what happened after Hurricane Katrina, and “expand these pledges and make adjustments to FCC programs so that even more Americans can get online during this crisis at little or no cost,” she said.

“Expand the reach and power of our universal service programs,” Starks said. “That should include quickly increasing the stock of lendable free hotspots available through schools and public libraries, expanding the reach of telemedicine, and enhancing Lifeline -- the only federal program designed to bring affordable communications to low-income Americans and a critical aspect of our social safety net.” Starks said the FCC could also help by speeding decisions on “waivers and experimental licenses that would let providers leverage underutilized wireless spectrum or new technologies to increase their capacity and reach.”

The regulator should also “extend every deadline that is coming up in the next month,” Rosenworcel tweeted: Other groups seek delays (see 2003120070).

Leftover Gap

Former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in an interview some could still fall through the gap. “A population that’s not being recognized is those who are incarcerated,” she said. Many correctional facilities are suspending in-person visits, she noted. What does that mean on the pricing of calls? she asked: “The FCC hasn’t really focused on that as of late.”

The agency also needs to pay more attention to people with mental health issues during this time of crisis, Clyburn said. Many schools are closing, she added. “In some communities, the school is the most stable part of their lives,” she said: “For a number of hours, they know what to expect. In some places, it’s a place of refuge.”

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt told us Pai was right to send all staff home Thursday. Pai should ask providers “assuming 50 percent of all the workers in the United States contract the virus, what are your plans for keeping the communications systems going?” Hundt said. “It’s the responsibility of the FCC to do this kind of convening.”

The agency should also make clear to Google and Facebook they need to “eliminate all the misinformation that they can find on the web” and “establish very clear sources of accurate information,” Hundt said: “Do this as public citizens, not because the government is ordering it.” The companies didn't comment. Congress needs to allocate as much as $2 billion for providing telehealth to anyone with easy access to a clinic, he said: “We want people to stay at home.”

Legislators

The House Commerce Committee praised the FCC for “calling on communications providers to ensure that all Americans can stay connected during the” coronavirus “emergency.” The panel lauded ISPs “that have started taking action to help consumers and implore others that more must be done to keep American’s connected during this pandemic.” House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., earlier led a letter with 11 other House Democrats to AT&T, Comcast and seven other major ISPs urging them to address connectivity challenges related to the outbreak.

“We hope that you are thoughtfully considering all the ways you can serve the broader community,” including how the companies are working with schools to “ensure that students without access to broadband service at home will be able to participate in remote learning during school closures,” the House Democrats wrote CEOs. They sought information on how the providers are working to connect people who don’t currently have broadband service, address connectivity needs “unique to” the coronavirus threat and assist “individuals facing financial hardship due to circumstances related to COVID-19.” Others signing included House Commerce Committee Vice Chair Yvette Clarke of New York, House Communications Chairman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and subcommittee Vice Chair Doris Matsui of California.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner of Virginia led a similar letter to the heads of eight ISPs with Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and 16 other Senate Democrats. “We write to discuss the steps that your company is taking to accommodate the unprecedented reliance we will likely see on telepresence services, including telework, online education, telehealth, and remote support services,” the senators said. “We ask that you temporarily suspend broadband caps and associated fees or throttling for all communities affected by COVID-19 and work with public school districts, colleges, and universities to provide free, or at-cost, broadband options for students whose schools close due to COVID-19 who don’t have access.”

Providers should “heed the Chairman’s plea to relax data caps and overage fees, expand, improve and if necessary lower the price of low-income broadband programs, and create such programs,” emailed Gigi Sohn, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society senior fellow: “Carriers should also permit tethering mobile service to devices if they don’t already do so, and increase bandwidth if necessary” for free. The FCC needs to “stop its war on Lifeline,” she said.

“The FCC has spent the last few years stripping much of its authority to oversee the broadband industry, preventing many of the provisions in this pledge from being enforceable,” said former Commissioner Michael Copps, now at Common Cause. “The FCC can use its universal service authority to ensure existing programs designed to connect communities to broadband are fully utilized.”

ISP Plans

Sonic began letting subscribers "financially affected by coronavirus pandemic" seek to defer billing for up to two months Friday, and will waive late fees, emailed CEO Dane Jasper. The LEC has no Wi-Fi hot spot network, he added, and has never had any data caps." To him, "this crisis clearly points out the fallacy that data caps are necessary for network management: if carriers that had data caps can [change] them now, during a time of unprecedented demand, they were never needed to manage capacity but were instead simply intended to restrain the move to streaming and protect affiliated pay-TV services." Some telcos and other stakeholders say network usage hasn't significantly increased. Jasper has opposed data caps, he acknowledged by phone, including citing his Thursday tweet. Sonic has had increased network usage in recent days, especially at already-peak times, as fewer people go out in the evenings, he told us.

Mediacom "will certainly comply with the three main points of the pledge" from Pai and will make other changes, said Senior Vice President-Government and Public Relations Tom Larsen in an interview. "We’re going to announce Connect2Compete [enhancements] and some other ways for folks to get online in an affordable way on Monday." The cable operator sells the C2C reduced-price broadband product for low-income households across its footprint, Larsen noted. Other changes the ISP is announcing are lower prices for its 60 Mbps downstream/5 Mbps upstream product, the cabler's slowest non-C2C offering, the lawyer said. Mediacom is also "adding across all tiers of service" an additional 50 GB a month of data for next few months, for all residential customers, he added.

USTelecom hasn't seen "time shifted traffic exceeding peak network capacity" in places where "a large population of workers are being told to stay home," CEO Jonathan Spalter wrote the chairs and ranking members of both chambers' Commerce Committees. He said the group will update the legislators' offices "on network performance during this crisis." As data flows generally are rising, with more than 60% of network throughput via video and content streaming, "our networks have sufficient capacity," he wrote. In the "evolving and unprecedented situation," all member telcos are "committed to the principles of network preparedness and resiliency," Spalter noted. See also a release.

Fixed wireless ISP Starry restored "any service that was canceled within the last month due to non-payment," in addition to following Pai's other principles, emailed Senior Vice President-Government Affairs and Strategic Advancement Virginia Lam Abrams. It doesn’t have hot spots, she noted: "We will never have data caps."

Frontier Communications, TDS and Windstream don't have data caps, their representatives emailed. TDS will open "Wi-Fi hot spots where we maintain them for 60 days," said Senior Vice President-Corporate Affairs Drew Petersen. "We are adopting all three tenets of the policy related to our voice and broadband customers."

Added Buy-In

Additional service providers signed on to the pledge.

Ten more telcos part of NTCA agreed to follow the three principles beyond the companies the FCC had disclosed, the group said. They include Hargray Communications, Matanuska Telephone Association and Northeast Nebraska Telephone. "The current pandemic presents challenges and concerns for communities large and small," NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield wrote Pai.

T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile customers who have plans with data will have unlimited smartphone data for the next 60 days, the carrier said. It’s also giving customers with mobile hot spot service extra data and expanding data for Lifeline customers. AT&T said it will honor the pledge. Cox said it will comply with the Pai ask, as did Charter Communications.

Verizon, which hasn't had a "measurable increase" in data usage, outlined two steps of Pai's three-point plan it's following. It didn't address Wi-Fi hot spots for nonsubscribers, and declined to comment further. "Most of the company’s wireless customers are on unlimited wireless plans," the telecoms provider said. "Customers who are not are encouraged to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots whenever available." The carrier doesn't "have data caps on its Fios home, 5G Home and DSL home broadband services, or on its wireline business broadband," the company said. CEO Hans Vestberg is "confident this joint effort" will help customers "continue to use the internet" and "carry on with their lives as we all address this collective challenge."

“The challenges facing our country require a new level of teamwork between broadband service providers and government,” ACA Connects said. Comcast said Thursday it will offer low-cost broadband, at higher speeds, through its Internet Essentials program over the next 60 days. New customers can get complimentary service.

Google Fiber lacks late fees or data caps, and non-customers can use the internet at the company's retail and customer service locations, said Director-Policy and Community Affairs John Burchett. "We’re aware of the other requests from the Chairman and will be adopting the recommendations that are applicable to Google Fiber," a rep emailed on Burchett's behalf. "Our network architecture ensures that we have plenty of capacity."