Showing archive for: “Digital Divide”
Fiber Freeze: How Maple Grove Made a Cable Franchise the Price of Broadband
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Build America Agenda rests on a simple premise: Stop making it so hard to build. Federal and state policymakers have spent years reducing permitting delays, resolving pole-attachment disputes, and easing access to public rights-of-way—the public corridors used for infrastructure such as roads, utility poles, and fiber lines. These obstacles slow ... Fiber Freeze: How Maple Grove Made a Cable Franchise the Price of Broadband
The Cost of Holding Up Broadband
America’s multibillion-dollar broadband push rests on an unglamorous piece of infrastructure: the utility pole. Fiber may carry the future, but first someone has to pay for the wood holding it up. Broadband providers rarely own the poles their networks use. Reaching a new community usually requires attaching equipment to poles owned by a utility or ... The Cost of Holding Up Broadband
The EU’s Bid to Nationalize Space
Europe’s latest space policy has a simple theory: To build a champion, you must first clear the field. The European Commission’s newly adopted proposal to reallocate the 2 GHz mobile-satellite-service (MSS) band—a slice of radio spectrum used for satellite communications—would reserve most of that spectrum for European operators. The same proposal would limit non-EU militaries ... The EU’s Bid to Nationalize Space
The Lifeline Program’s Afterlife Problem
A subsidy program can survive many things. Paying benefits to the dead should not be one of them. That is the problem now facing the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Lifeline program, which was designed to ensure that low-income Americans can connect to the communications networks modern life depends on. As the program has expanded to ... The Lifeline Program’s Afterlife Problem
The Last Mile Is a Paper Trail: Why Broadband Gets Stuck
Everyone wants faster broadband—no one wants to wait for the permits. Modern communications infrastructure doesn’t stand still. Providers must keep investing in upgrades and expansion to meet consumer demand. Next-generation applications—artificial intelligence (AI), artificial reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR)—will require robust infrastructure to support them. That infrastructure depends on sustained investment from a wide ... The Last Mile Is a Paper Trail: Why Broadband Gets Stuck
Guardrails, Not Roadblocks: Improving the AI Framework
Washington has a choice: let AI policy fragment into 50 competing regimes, or set a clear federal baseline that keeps innovation moving. The Trump administration’s new artificial intelligence (AI) legislative framework stakes out the latter path—but leaves important gaps. The framework sketches broad principles to guide federal policymaking on a technology at risk of a ... Guardrails, Not Roadblocks: Improving the AI Framework
Gigabit or Bust: The Mirage of Insufficient Broadband Competition
Regulators keep searching for a simple test to declare broadband markets “competitive.” The California Public Utilities Commission’s Public Advocates Office (Cal Advocates) thinks it found one: count gigabit networks. If a market lacks multiple overlapping gigabit-capable systems, Cal Advocates suggests in a report released last month, regulators should treat it as effectively noncompetitive. That framing ... Gigabit or Bust: The Mirage of Insufficient Broadband Competition
Rules Down, Rockets Up: The Year Telecom Policy Hit Reset
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) have had a busy year on numerous fronts, but perhaps none more important than their work on broadband deployment and adoption. At the FCC, Chairman Brendan Carr made his “Build America” agenda a key agency priority, while the NTIA implemented a variety of ... Rules Down, Rockets Up: The Year Telecom Policy Hit Reset
Lutnick’s BEAD Pivot: Progress Through Pragmatism
The U.S. Commerce Department plans to revamp the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program with a shift toward a more technology-neutral approach, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced yesterday, adding that his department is also exploring ways to cut the program’s red tape. Lutnick’s announcement follows criticisms of BEAD’s initial focus on fiber-optic ... Lutnick’s BEAD Pivot: Progress Through Pragmatism
Law & Order: Affordable Broadband Edition
New York State lawmakers decided in 2021 to take a swing at making internet service more affordable with the state’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA). The law says that internet providers in New York must offer low-income subscribers two plans: A basic plan with at least 25 Mbps download speeds for no more than $15 a ... Law & Order: Affordable Broadband Edition
NTIA’s BEAD Technology Guidance: In Search of a Bang for the Buck
Created as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in November 2021, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program is supposed to provide $42.45 billion to U.S. states, territories, and the District of Columbia to help with broadband planning, deployment, mapping, equity, and adoption—all overseen by ... NTIA’s BEAD Technology Guidance: In Search of a Bang for the Buck
The T-Mobile/UScellular Transaction: Can a Merger Increase Competition?
Last year, T-Mobile announced its intention to enter into a transaction with UScellular. The deal would include acquiring UScellular’s wireless operations, including its wireless customers and stores, as well as select spectrum assets. In addition, T-Mobile would enter into a long-term agreement to lease space on more than 2,000 UScellular towers. Valued at $4.4 billion ... The T-Mobile/UScellular Transaction: Can a Merger Increase Competition?
