Today:  ACLU Report Urges Cities to Provide Broadband to Preserve Net Neutrality, DOJ and South Carolina Department of Corrections Settlement, FCC Mobility Fund Phase II Map 

ACLU Report Urges Cities to Provide Broadband to Preserve Net Neutrality

A new report by the American Civil Liberties Union entitled The Public Internet Option: How Local Governments Can Provide Network Neutrality, Privacy, and Access for All encourages the adoption of municipal broadband as a means of protecting privacy and free speech (including network neutrality), and also to offer a set of “best practices” for those cities and towns that adopt municipal broadband.  The report notes that the Internet has become a necessity, like traditional utilities such as water and power and that “[n]othing the FCC has done prevents a city, county, or town from directing its own, municipally run service to honor strong network neutrality and privacy policies.”   It urges states, cities, towns, and counties to “take matters into their own hands by creating publicly owned services that do honor those values and can help ensure an open internet.”

The recommendation is focused on the following three principles:

• High-speed broadband must be accessible and affordable for all. 
• Community broadband services must protect free speech.
• Community broadband services must protect privacy.

DOJ and South Carolina Department of Corrections Settlement

The Justice Department announced it reached a settlement agreement with the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), to ensure that inmates with hearing disabilities are provided effective communication and the opportunity to participate equally in SCDC’s services, programs, and activities.  The settlement agreement resolves complaints under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in which inmates with hearing disabilities alleged that SCDC failed to provide them with sign language interpreters and other auxiliary aids and services.  Among other things, SCDC will provide telecommunication services so that inmates with hearing disabilities may communicate with their families and attorneys the same as other inmates. Specifically, SCDC agreed to provide the following telecommunication services at its facilities:

• Access to Telecommunications Relay Service, South Carolina Relay Service, or Video Relay Service as needed to connect persons with hearing disabilities with others.
• A functional TTY and a telephone with volume control at each institution housing an inmate with a hearing disability. The SCDC will also provide access to a videophone to inmates who are deaf.
•  If any inmate who has a hearing disability requires a different auxiliary aid or service to effectively communicate, the SCDC will provide that aid or service unless doing so would fundamentally alter the service, program, or activity or would result in undue financial and administrative burdens.

The SCDC must also ensure that the privacy of telephone calls involving inmates using a videophone, TTY, or a telephone with volume control is equal to the privacy afforded to other inmates' telephone calls.

FCC Mobility Fund Phase II Map

The FCC announced that, on April 10, 2018, it would release a map of areas presumptively ineligible for Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) support due to qualifying, unsubsidized coverage reported by one mobile providers.  Release of the map will help ensure a timely and effective MF-II challenge process as the map will inform challengers of those areas for which they will need to test the coverage of only one unsubsidized mobile provider.  Once released, the map will be available here.

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 The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.

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