Reporting

Under the surface of Washington’s negotiations over infrastructure – and buried in jargon like "municipal networks" and "overbuilding" – is a debate about how Americans may get their internet in the years ahead. Will your broadband bill come from a purely private company or will it be more like a public utility? The Biden administration wants to at least nudge the country toward the latter. The effort is being led by Vice President Kamala Harris and one aspect of the administration's plan would encourage government-owned broadband networks.

To reach homes that lack good service, or have none at all, President Joe Biden has proposed funding networks that are run by cities and nonprofits. That’s not sitting well with Comcast, AT&T, Verizon Communications, and other dominant carriers, which don’t like the prospect of facing subsidized competitors.

Competition is a wonderful thing. A case in point is the enormous difference Charter Spectrum charges new customers in areas where competition exists, and where it does not. Stop the Cap! compared promotional new customer offers in the metro Rochester (NY) market where Spectrum faces token competition from Frontier’s slow speed DSL service. Then we checked pricing in neighborhoods where a fiber to the home overbuilder called Greenlight also offers service. Spectrum does not even bother offering new customers its entry-level 200 Mbps plan in areas where it has significant fiber competition.

A group of Republican Senators has unveiled a $928 billion infrastructure proposal to counter President Joe Biden's plan for a nearly $2 trillion bill. The proposal outlines a significant increase from the most recent GOP plan to spend $568 billion. The new version includes additional money for roads, bridges, water, rail and airports, but the majority of the proposed spending is part of an existing baseline plan for investments. The total new money is just $257 billion. The single-largest spending item is $506 billion for roads, bridges and major projects — a $91 billion increase.

The US government has upended the $35 billion-a-year cellular-equipment industry, ushering in a new era of competition and giving US companies a shot at re-entering a sector they vacated years ago. Pushed by Washington’s campaign to cripple Huawei over cybersecurity concerns, countries representing more than 60% of the world’s cellular-equipment market are considering or have already enacted restrictions against Huawei. And to take advantage of that opening, the US government—as well as governments in the UK and European Union—are considering financial support and other measures to boost do

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg argued policymakers should focus broadband funding more on promoting affordability rather than accessibility. “I think that when it comes to accessibility, I think that all carriers are building quite extensively,” he said, adding Verizon covers “almost all individuals in this country with” its wireless network. “Now we're turning that into fixed wireless access or using our fiber-to-the-home.

Spectrum is forcing customers who are eligible for a new federal subsidy for internet service to opt into full-price plans once the subsidy runs out. The policy appears to skirt rules set forth by the Federal Communications Commission, which is running the Emergency Broadband Benefit program. The $3.2 billion emergency broadband benefit, which launched earlier this month, gives people up to $50 off of their monthly internet bill. The stopgap funding was allocated in response to the pandemic and is expected to run out within the year.

President Biden’s recently announced infrastructure proposal calls for a massive, unprecedented investment aimed at connecting all Americans to the Internet, one that has led to some digital equity experts calling it a potential game changer for their work. What does Biden’s plan need to do to fully address digital equity and Internet access in the United States? Experts say: availability is goog; adoption is better.

Former Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and INCOMPAS CEO Chip Pickering are launching a new coalition, BroadLand, urging Congress to demand faster internet speeds as part of any multibillion-dollar broadband infrastructure initiatives. The floor should be at least 100 megabits per second for both downloads and uploads, the group says. Those speeds may sound awesome to anyone who’s tried to stream Netflix movies at home while roommates or family members conference over Zoom or attend virtual classes.

On a collection of adjoining fields near a university in rural western England, an ambitious farming project aims to show it’s possible to plant, grow and harvest a crop autonomously, using robotics, drones—and potentially 5G. The case for using 5G in farming shows promise, although the superfast networking technology is only beginning to be applied in the agriculture world. And there have been some kinks in early-stage experiments.