Op-Ed

Somewhere above you right now, a plane is broadcasting its coordinates on 1090 megahertz. A satellite high above Earth is transmitting weather maps on 1694.1 MHz. On top of all that, every single phone and Wi-Fi router near you blasts internet traffic through the air over radio waves.

The Federal Communications Commission has lost—albeit hopefully temporarily—its authority to conduct spectrum auctions. But luckily for consumers and industry, the agency still has tools to make desperately needed mid-band spectrum immediately available for terrestrial broadband uses. Thanks to changes in technology, the landscape around the lower 12 GHz band (12.2-12.7 MHz) has evolved significantly over the last several years. At the same time, 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) has taken the connectivity world by storm.

In June 2023, President Joe Biden announced how more than $42 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding will be allocated across the US and its territories to bring 100% broadband access to nearly 60 million unserved or underserved Americans within five years. Now, the real work begins: determining how 50 states and six territories will put that funding to work. Despite the many funding initiatives aimed to solve the problem in the US, those finances are finite and currently trending in a “fiber-first” direction.

As the federal government, along with states, gets ready to make a once-in-a-lifetime investment in broadband infrastructure, the concept of the digital divide remains somewhat the same as it was back in the mid-1990s, when the term was coined.

Today, many months after passage of the landmark Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the states are finally on the cusp of implementing National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s $40+ billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program. Some states are confidently moving ahead quickly, while others are in the early days of developing concrete plans for how they will manage this historic federal investment.

Unlike many communities in Michigan, every resident in Holland is served by one of two incumbent internet service providers. However, available speeds, network quality, and provider options negatively impacted educational outcomes, work-from-home opportunities, and overall quality of life in the area, particularly during the pandemic. Today, Holland has taken a significant step forward by awarding a contract to develop and construct a publicly-owned open-access fiber network that will span across the entire city.

Community Technology NY (CTNY) offers an alternative vision of technology in which under-resourced communities and neighborhoods have direct control over their digital communications, allowing them to be owners and maintainers, not just consumers, of that technology. CTNY has critical expertise in facilitation, data gathering, analysis, strategic planning, and training. CTNY’s mission is to facilitate and support healthy, resilient, and sustainable community digital ecosystems, rooted in digital equity and digital justice.

Congress is dysfunctional. The courts are a bad and dangerous joke. Independent government agencies are on the cusp of being dismantled. The Administration’s agenda is largely blocked. Companies large and small have pillaged the economy and jacked up prices that impose real pain on American consumers, long after economic circumstances can justify it. The media, which have a solemn obligation to give us real news and information, choose instead to blanket us with infotainment and trifle that divert our attention from the real problems that are undermining our democracy.

May 26 was an historic day for Bountiful City. The City Council voted unanimously, 5-0, to provide its residents with lightning fast, universal and affordable fiber broadband service by partnering with UTOPIA Fiber, the same company that provides fiber-to-the-home service in 20 cities across Utah.

High-speed internet service at home is no longer a luxury—it is a necessity.