<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">My immediate response to the FCC's “Rural Digital Opportunity Fund” announcement yesterday? <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Just more pandering….<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Via CAF-2, the preceding FCC fund, two of the vendors serving a community in which I'm working — CenturyLink and Viasat — have each taken hundreds of millions of funding, yet for two years running haven't made good on their existing pledges of seriously extending broadband service. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Is there a reason that ths next round of funding won’t be more feathering of the ISPs’ nests?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Moreover, the FCC, by limiting distribution of the “new" funds only to communities with "no broadband service whatsoever,” means only one local customer with broadband, defined by the USDA as 10 mbps down and 1 mbps up, and by the FCC in this announcement as 25 mBps down,3 mbps up — neither of which 99% of the global internet community would consider “broadband” — will disqualify a community from receiving a grant. The local bar streaming NFL games will suffice for this purpose. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In short, this appears to be much adieu about nothing, just another FCC bone tossed to existing ISPs who will no doubt take their time implementing expansions (presuming they actually implement them) and use the unearned public investment to (1) better compete for urban customers and (2) increase shareholder dividends. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Was there public comment? The FCC press release didn’t feature any. That was predictable.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Bob Jacobson</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jan 31, 2020, at 1:00 PM, <a href="mailto:1st-mile-nm-request@mailman.dcn.org" class="">1st-mile-nm-request@mailman.dcn.org</a> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-launches-20-billion-rural-digital-opportunity-fund" style="font-family: ArialMT; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-launches-20-billion-rural-digital-opportunity-fund</a></div></blockquote></div><br class=""><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Robert Jacobson, Ph.D.<br class="">Chairman & Strategist<br class="">Atelier Tomorrow Inc.<br class=""><br class="">A Non-Profit, Tax-Exempt Arizona Corporation </div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Consulting to the Public & Nonprofit Sectors<br class=""><br class="">• Regional and Corporate Innovation Management <br class="">• Urban, Regional & State Innovation Platforms<br class="">• Emerging Technologies of Experience<br class=""><br class="">Member: Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD)<br class="">Member: Design Research Council (UK)<br class="">LinkedIn: <a href="https://linkedin.com/in/bobjacobson/" class="">https://linkedin.com/in/bobjacobson/</a><br class=""><br class="">1530 Blue Ridge Road<br class="">Tucson, Arizona 85745 USA<br class=""><br class="">Mobile: +1 (520) 370-1259<br class=""><a href="mailto:robert.jacobson@atelier-tomorrow.com" class="">Email: robert.jacobson@atelier-tomorrow.com</a><br class=""><br class=""></div>
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