February 2016

The Federal Communications Commission announces the availability of the Final Report (Report) of the Task Force on Optimal Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) Architecture (Task Force). Chartered in December 2014, the Task Force is a federal advisory committee charged with providing recommendations to the Commission regarding actions that PSAPs can take to optimize their security, operations, and funding as they implement Next Generation 911 (NG911). At its January 29, 2016, meeting, the Task Force voted unanimously to adopt a consolidated report and final set of recommendations, as incorporated from the reports and recommendations of the Task Force's three working groups: Working Group 1 - Cybersecurity: Optimal Approach for PSAPs; Working Group 2 -Optimal 911 Service Architecture; and Working Group 3 - Optimal Resource Allocation.

In contrary to the common argument that the digital access divide is quickly closing and that the focus should shift to skills and usage, this article shows that access to digital communication is a moving target unlikely to ever be solved. While the number of subscriptions reaches population saturation levels, the bandwidth divide continuous to be dynamic. The article measures the nationally installed bandwidth potential of 172 countries from 1986 to 2014. The overarching finding is that the divide in terms of bandwidth does not show any clear monotonic pattern. It fluctuates up and down over the decades as the result of an intricate interplay between incessant technological progress and diffusion of technology.

The bandwidth divide between high- and low income countries has first increased and only decreased below historic levels very recently during 2012–2014. In general it shows that the bandwidth divide is linked to the income divide, which is notoriously persistent. The bandwidth distribution among all countries is undergoing a new process of global concentration, during which North America and Europe is being replaced by Asia as the new global leader. In 2014 only 3 countries host 50% of the globally installed bandwidth potential (10 countries almost 75%). The U.S. lost its global leadership in 2011, being replaced by China, which contributes more than twice as much national bandwidth potential in 2014 (29% versus 13%). Despite this bad news about the continuous persistence of the digital access divide among countries, exploratory analysis from a global perspective brings the good news that many more individual people seem to enjoy more equal access to global bandwidth. All of this showcases the urgency to systematically develop indicators to track the digital divide in terms of bandwidth.

There are times in which law enforcement wants -- needs -- to know what people are saying, and the broad use of encryption technologies makes it much harder to do that. Apple's messaging system uses "end-to-end" encryption, which means that when the message leaves your phone it is encrypted and it is only encrypted when it reaches the other person. It passes over Apple's servers to get there, but Apple can't see what you're saying. This is good for privacy; this is bad for the police. When political candidates are asked about the issue, they have to figure out where to find some middle ground. The problem is that there really isn't any middle ground, unlike many things in the political world. Creating a way to undermine encryption undermines that encryption for everyone. No matter how well the door in the endless, giant wall is hidden, someone can find it.