Editorial

The future of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is now at risk. Civil rights organizations have partnered with Congress, the Biden administration, internet service providers, and other stakeholders to spread the word about the ACP so that those who need it most are informed and can get connected. But the future of the ACP is not guaranteed. Congress needs to step up again and ensure adequate funding to continue the program.

For me, Juneteenth has always lived at the intersection of joy and sorrow. It highlights a systemized violation of human rights in our country. Throughout history, access to information has always been used as a tool of oppression, with the knowledge that it can also liberate. A modern form of institutional oppression is digital inequity.

More than 30 years since the first honk and screech of commercial dial-up, there is a conspicuously empty seat at the collective table of global high-speed connectivity. Six companies account for half of all internet traffic worldwide. These six companies have a combined market cap of $9 trillion. It’s a far cry from their garage start-up days, and without question, they are tremendous American success stories. However, does it still make sense that the government and broadband providers alone fund broadband infrastructure?

Lawmakers in Costa Rica writing a bill with ChatGPT. A judge in Colombia using the same tool to ask for advice in a case before him. A news anchor developed by artificial intelligence giving live reports in Mexico. As in the rest of the world, both the wonders and absurdities of AI are increasingly visible in Latin America.

In the wake of the bipartisan resolution on the debt ceiling, Congress now has the opportunity to take another timely and unifying step forward for our nation—one that will help ensure a connected economy in which everyone can fully participate in its many opportunities. Nearly $42.5 billion in federal broadband infrastructure investment is poised to begin flowing to the states. With broadband providers and communities ready, willing, and eager to proceed, the single most intractable barricade remains—the ability of the gears of government to grind all progress to a halt.

One of the very first programs I managed upon my arrival at US Ignite in 2021 was Project OVERCOME. We selected six communities to pilot advanced wireless and community broadband adoption programs through a rigorous solicitation and review process.

Many Americans lack access to high-speed broadband which has allowed communities to get what they need without having to leave their homes. And so, just as the oceans commission developed the facts necessary to create solutions, Pew convened experts and conducted research to gather the data that policymakers need to make a difference and to expand access to this critical broadband infrastructure. Pew has been working at both the state and federal levels on broadband issues. Far from just a rural issue, broadband access is a concern all around us, in unserved city blocks and neighborhoods, w

The nation’s spring construction season is starting up, and, in theory, it should be a big one. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act devoted more than $1 trillion dollars to upgrading the country’s roads, rails and ports. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act is supposed to pump tens of billions more into renewables and other energy infrastructure.

Some people in the telecommunications industry like to compare the copper or fiber lines transmitting data under our feet to railways. They are both natural monopolies, they argue: duplication is wasteful, the high costs of construction deter new entrants, and economies of scale are essential for survival. But laying fiber costs much less than laying a railway track. The very fact that over 100 alternative network providers — or “altnets” — have popped up, backed by billions in private capital, suggests the financial incentives are there to multiply the infrastructure.

On June 24, 2022, I wrote an Op-Ed urging policymakers to fully fund the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). I predicted that funding for the ACP is likely to run out by mid-2024 and called for action at the state and federal levels to extend that funding. We’ve had some follow-up questions on how we came up with our projections. The four assumptions used to model our projections are as follows: