According to the Federal Register notice, the rules are designed ?to provide interconnecting entities adequate time to prepare their networks for the planned copper retirements and to ensure that consumers are able to make informed choices.?

When asked by News 7 what he feared about lacking a landline connection, Martin Towey, who has Parkinson?s disease and lives alone, responded: ?That I?m on the floor and can?t get up, I can?t call a doctor. It?s ridiculous.?

CWA and the AFL-CIO, civil rights groups, public interest and consumer organizations, education advocates and library associations all filed comments at the FCC urging the agency to modernize the low-income subsidy program to support broadband services, quality standards, and to establish a neutral third-party eligibility verifier.

A study published at the Benton Foundation finds a strong relationship between age, Internet use, and socioeconomic status.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn is supporting an upgrade and expansion of the Lifeline program which, she said, "was established in the mid '80s, has been stuck in the mid '80s.?

Two Benton Foundation authors combined 2014 Pew Internet survey data on age, income and education to closely examine Internet use among seniors.

All five FCC commissioners voted today to require closed captioning in all online video that was previously captioned on television.

The Tenth Federal Circuit Court in Denver upheld the FCC?s right to use its $4.5 billion Connect America Fund to subsidize rural broadband.

According to the new Pew report, ?... many seniors remain largely unattached from online and mobile life ? 41 percent do not use the internet at all, 53 percent do not have broadband access at home, and 23 percent do not use cell phones.?

According to a new Pew study, the black/white ?digital divide? continues to persist, but African American mobile use exceeds whites. And Internet use is also a matter of education and income.