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Digital Inclusion

Debra Berlyn: Five Questions Older Adults Should Ask About Being Online

A broadband connection opens a universe of opportunities and benefits for older adults that grows exponentially.

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3 months ago

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Will Grammy find that “connection” and get the final rose? While that remains to be seen, we do know older adults are increasingly getting connected to broadband!  While reports indicate there are still a significant number in the aging community who aren’t connected (22 million still don’t have broadband, representing 42% of the 65 and older U.S. population), there are many new and recent 65+ Internet users, thanks to major commitments from the government and industry.

The U.S. is dedicating billions of dollars to connect everyone, everywhere to broadband with programs such as the Affordable Connectivity Program and the Broadband Equity and Advancement Program.  Industry partners have also invested significant dollars for broadband buildout and to implement affordable service plans for those that qualify in unserved and underserved areas.

A broadband connection opens a universe of great opportunities and benefits for older adults that grows exponentially.  While most know of these benefits, they have a growing number of questions about what some of the latest technological developments mean for them, as well as what the future online experience will offer.

What are these burning questions that older adults have about tech?  Here are five “hot topics” at the top of the list:

What impact does Artificial Intelligence have on my daily life?

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is simply the development of computer systems to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence.  This AI or “computer generated” intelligence can be evident in tasks such as speech recognition, visual perception, translation between languages, in some of the advanced tech devices that we use now for everyday tasks.

AI is integrated into older adults’ everyday life, with those 65+ increasingly relying on critically important technologies that utilize AI to improve and advance services. Without perhaps realizing it, older adults are using AI for music playlist recommendations, engaging with customer service chatbots that can immediately answer questions, using wearable fitness trackers that help analyze exercise patterns, and utilizing voice assistants in the home – all common uses of AI.  Artificial Intelligence is built into our smart cars, smart appliances, and telehealth applications, which are all elements of “smart” aging.

ChatGPT (and Regenerative AI):  Is this a useful technology for older adults?

The media has been buzzing about the latest AI development, ChatGPT (“Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer”). There’s a great deal of concern swirling around regarding the impact it will have on originality and individual creativity.  Leaving these debates aside, there are beneficial applications of ChatGPT for older users: 1) answering questions about any topic and engaging in “conversation,” is one example where it can be used to help to reduce isolation and sharpen cognitive skills; 2) listening and sharing stories so that an individual feels “heard;” 3) offering specific hobbies and activities geared to the individual’s interests; and 4) to potentially assist with healthcare and questions related to specific illnesses.  There are opportunities to have fun with ChatGPT as well, asking it to compose silly rhymes and respond to non-sensical questions.

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality:  What’s the difference between the two, and will either one be of interest to me?

The technology of Virtual Reality or VR – immerses you in a virtual world to transport you to an experience without leaving your living room.  An older individual can put on a VR headset and ride along an open Jeep on an African safari, tour the Guggenheim Museum in New York, attend an opera or concert at Carnegie Hall, or stroll along the streets of Paris.

These are some of the applications of VR today and VR headsets are available for use at some independent and assisted living homes, providing opportunities for older individuals to enhance their daily lives.  VR is also a great tool for the elderly to reduce isolation who have limited mobility or are perhaps experiencing cognitive decline. It provides an opportunity to relive early experiences and travel the world.

Augmented Reality – or AR – is technology that overlays digital images, or a “virtual image,” on to the actual world: a “real” environment” setting for an enhanced experience.  An individual can accomplish this today by just simply using their existing device such a smartphone.  For an older adult, there could be a wide range of applications, available now and with more in the future for AR.

Shopping at home is not only easier, but more meaningful, with the opportunity for potential purchases to be viewed exactly as they will look in the home: a new rug in the store or a painting in a gallery can be viewed alongside you own existing possessions in your home.  A dress from a boutique can be “tried on” in the virtual world using AR.  AR technology can be accessed with an existing device such as a smartphone, or some other device in the future.

Privacy, Privacy, Privacy:  I want it when I’m online, so what action should I take?

Older adults recognize the ubiquitous nature of technology in their lives today and anticipate innovations to come but can hesitate about its use because of privacy concerns.  According to the American Society on Aging, “Elders often avoid buying or limit using technology because of privacy, security, usability and other concerns.”  Older adults need and want to engage privacy protections in their tech devices.

There are currently tools available to set-up privacy and security protections for devices most older adults are using, such as smartphones, tablets, home security systems and voice assistants.  However, as the innovative space gets more complex, older adults will need to understand the privacy and security risks of the tech they’re using, as well as learn to engage any available protections to maintain their privacy.

What’s Next?  How can tech help me stay in my home?

As we consider innovations to assist older adults in aging well, there are several opportunities within the home and community. A recent AARP report demonstrates that there are a growing number of older adults who have adopted smart home technology to manage their energy services, security, and appliances. As autonomous vehicles continue to develop, they will offer older individuals ongoing independence well into the older years. Technology holds great promise to provide new innovative ways to support caregiving.

For older adults, a broadband connection is the gateway to new opportunities for aging well.  As more within the community get connected, questions and concerns will continue regarding new technologies.  Clear information to address these issues will help to ensure they have a safe and secure online experience and to continue to receive the great benefits innovation offers.

Debra Berlyn is the Executive Director of the Project to Get Older Adults onLine (Project GOAL), which works to promote the adoption of broadband for older adults, and to advance technology applications for the community. She is also president of Consumer Policy Solutions, is on the board of the National Consumers League, and is a board member and senior fellow with the Future of Privacy Forum. This piece is exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.

Broadband Breakfast accepts commentary from informed observers of the broadband scene. Please send pieces to commentary@breakfast.media. The views expressed in Expert Opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of Broadband Breakfast and Breakfast Media LLC.

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Debra Berlyn serves as the Executive Director of The Project to Get Older Adults onLine (GOAL), and she is also the President of Consumer Policy Solutions. Ms. Berlyn is a seasoned veteran of telecommunications and consumer policy issues and an advocate for consumers of technology services. She represented AARP on the digital television transition and has worked closely with national aging organizations on several Internet issues, including online safety and privacy concerns.

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Digital Inclusion

Provider Says FCC Should Freeze Affordable Connectivity Program Transfers

After February 7, the FCC is not going to require ISPs to accept ACP transfers.

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3 days ago

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January 13, 2024

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Photo of FCC Deputy Bureau Chief Noah Stein from Fordham University

WASHINGTON, January 13, 2024 – The Federal Communications Commission will start to shut down a key internet subsidy program for low-income households early next month, but one provider thinks the agency needs to do more.

The FCC said Thursday that the Affordable Connectivity Program will stop accepting new enrollments after February 7. New internet access providers can’t join the program after that date, either.

According to MVNO provider TruConnect, the FCC needs to broaden its plan. The virtual wireless company said the agency should freeze the ability of current ACP enrollees to transfer their benefits to another internet provider after February 7.

“A benefit transfer freeze during this time is in the best interest of ACP households, ACP providers, program integrity and program efficiency until funding either expires or is reappropriated,” TruConnect’s lawyer Judson H. Hill said in a filing posted on the FCC’s website today.

Hill said he communicated TruConnect’s position on Jan. 9 to Noah Stein, Deputy Bureau Chief of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, which issued the FCC’s 15-page ACP shutdown order two days later.

FCC’s shutdown order restricts the transfer of ACP benefits

According to the FCC, about 22 million low-income households have enrolled in the ACP, which Congress established in late 2021 with $14.2 billion to take $30 off monthly internet bills. The program’s last full month will be April without new funding by Congress, the FCC said.

The FCC’s rules provide that “households may transfer their ACP service benefit once per calendar month, with limited exceptions.”

In Thursday’s order, the FCC said it would not “require providers to perform transfer-in transactions for enrolled ACP households seeking to transfer their benefit.”

Instead, the FCC said it will allow “providers to choose whether to accept transfers after the ACP enrollment freeze.”

TruConnect didn’t provide any specifics behind its support for a transfer freeze.

In his discussion with the FCC’s Stein, Hill said he “emphasized that once program enrollments are frozen, that to achieve an orderly program wind down until funding expires that the [FCC] should also freeze ACP household subscriber benefit transfers between ACP programs providers.”

TruConnect’s website is effectively a portal to sign up ACP households and includes offers such as free 8 GB of high-speed data, free unlimited talk and text, and an option to buy a tablet for $10.01.

The ACP is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Co. under the FCC’s oversight. USAC’s website does not appear to have information on how many ACP enrollees have transferred to a new internet provider during the 24-month life of the ACP, which was created to help struggling Americans rebound from the pandemic.

Ted Hearn is the Editor of Policyband, a new website dedicated to comprehensive coverage of the broadband communications market. This piece was published on Policyband on January 12, 2024, and is reprinted with permission.

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Broadband's Impact

FCC Issues Timeline for ACP Wind Down

The FCC order came a day after bipartisan legislation was introduced to extend ACP.

Published

4 days ago

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January 12, 2024

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Photo of hourglass via iStock.

WASHINGTON, January 12, 2024 – The Federal Communications Commission announced on Thursday that starting February 8 it will no longer accept new enrollments for the Affordable Connectivity Program, barring Congressional approval of additional funding for the low-income program.

The commission issued a 15-page order detailing its timeline and requirements to gradually phase out the program. The first in a series of deadlines is set for January 25, when providers must notify participants of the program’s anticipated end for the first time.

The FCC’s order came the day after bipartisan legislation was introduced in both the Senate and the House, proposing an additional $7 billion for the ACP program.

If passed, this funding would enable the FCC to extend the ACP until the year’s end, potentially negating some of the wind-down steps detailed in the recent FCC order.

Introduced in January 2022 to replace the Emergency Connectivity Fund that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACP offers monthly stipends of $30-75 for internet service to qualifying U.S. households.

In the recent order, the commission notes that with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress enacted several changes to the ECF Program to transform it from an emergency COVID-19 program to a longer-term broadband affordability program. 

The FCC continues to change the program to address participant needs. Most recently, the commission raised the monthly ACP benefit to $75 for high-cost rural areas and directed the Universal Service Administrative Company to accept applications from interested providers.

Yet, due to concerns about potential confusion, the commission canceled the plans for USAC to process applications in a recent order. 

Absent Congressional intervention, the FCC’s Bureau will announce the last fully funded month of the program in late February, currently projected to be April 2024.

Fifteen days after that announcement, providers will be required to send a second notice to ACP participants about the program’s end. The third notice issued will coincide with the last billing cycle that the full ACP benefit is applied to. 

Providers must secure a household’s explicit agreement to continue to receive broadband services after the end of the ACP.

In the order, the commission said it will begin to inform organizations that received outreach grants to cease outreach work focused on enrollment.

On Friday, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, alongside four community partner organizations representing the 240 outreach coordinators for the ACP, filed a letter to the FCC asking that ACP outreach grantees be able to redirect their funded work toward program wind-down activities, including “raising awareness about the potential end of the ACP.”            

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12 Days of Broadband

12 Days: FCC Issued Rules Against Digital Discrimination

In religious traditions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and others, 8 represents the idea of balance, justice and fairness.

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3 weeks ago

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December 29, 2023

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Illustration by DALL-E

WASHINGTON, December 29, 2023 – In a vote split 3-2 along party lines, the Federal Communications Commission moved to adopt rules aimed at preventing discrimination in access to broadband services, on November 15.

Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the agency was tasked by Congress to enact regulations in 2023 aimed at eliminating digital discrimination and preventing its recurrence. The law amended the Communications Act to include the standard that “subscribers should benefit from equal access to broadband internet access service within the service area of a provider of such service.” (47 U.S.C. 1754)

The FCC’s new rules ban service providers from broadband discrimination by implementing a “disparate impact” standard. This standard aims to hold internet service providers accountable for practices that result in unequal broadband access among marginalized groups, irrespective of the providers’ intentions.

The shift departs from the former “disparate treatment” norm, which long upheld that either the government or third-party plaintiffs had to present proof of deliberate discrimination by a business to establish liability.

The new regulations implement a rule that digital discrimination can occur even if there is no discriminatory intent, based on criteria like income or race, is involved.

How will the agency conduct enforcement?

The commission will now have enforcement powers available, and investigations may be initiated through a complaint process.

Broadband providers criticized the agency and threated to sue because of the potential broad application of the new standard, fearing it might penalize routine business practices. Their efforts aimed to narrow the definition of digital discrimination to actions specifically designed to disenfranchise particular communities.

Before the agency’s action in mid-December, 24 organizations penned a letter to Congress urging its members to oppose the FCC’s rulemaking in mid-December.

Differing views on the rule’s effect

Experts held differing views regarding the probable effects of the FCC’s rules at a November Broadband Breakfast Live Online event. 

At the event Harold Feld, senior vice president at public interest group Public Knowledge, maintained that the rules’ impact would be minimal for the initial 60 days after implementation, and then, most likely remedy only the “worst and most visible disparities” in broadband access. 

Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution Director Nicol Turner-Lee cautioned that demonstrating instances of discrimination poses a significant challenge, as evidenced in other sectors such as housing, healthcare, and employment.

Others in the industry have raised concern that the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program may not effectively address the issues faced by marginalized groups. In a recent Expert Opinion piece, Emma Gautier from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance contended that urban areas, significantly impacted by digital redlining, might face greater obstacles in obtaining BEAD funding. This challenge stems from the infrastructure law’s predominant emphasis on rural development. 

The situation is further complicated by flawed FCC maps, she said which exaggerate coverage, speeds, and competition, making it notably difficult or perhaps impossible for most urban zones tagged as “served” to access BEAD funds.

See “The Twelve Days of Broadband” on Broadband Breakfast

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