Op-Ed

Before the Apollo 11 mission in July of 1969, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) did not have a reliable way to transmit data generated in space back to Earth.

The Thompson Scholars Foundation is based in the Town Branch neighborhood of Manchester, Kentucky. We provide wraparound after-school academic enrichment to historically underserved populations in Clay County in the Appalachian region of southeast Kentucky, one of the areas in the United States hardest hit by poverty. Our work with disadvantaged students has also meant a focus on digital equity because bridging the digital divide is essential to our community’s future. Our programming promotes diversity and inclusion.

Dleł Taaneets is the traditional name of my hometown of Rampart; it means “the hanging moose hide,” which the bluffs near our village mimic in color. My ancestors survived on these lands by following the lifeways of the season: spruce tips and birds in spring, salmon and plants in the summer, berries and moose in winter, trapping in the winter. Living off the lands of Alaska is unforgiving due to extreme weather, but my lineage endured and thrived by maintaining respect for one another, having gratitude to the animals and plants, and honoring the gorgeous lands that sustained them.

June 2023 marks four years since the completion of backbone construction and lighting of all phases of the Westminster Fiber Network (WFN) project in Westminster, Maryland. Another milestone will soon be achieved: Subscriber growth will begin generating sufficient revenue for the city to cover the debt service on the general obligation bonds sold to finance the project.

As businesses and governments race to make sense of the impacts of new, powerful AI systems, governments around the world are jostling to take the lead on regulation. Business leaders should be focused on who is likely to win this race, more so than the questions of how or even when AI will be regulated.

The US Treasury just gave California more than half a billion dollars to fund broadband buildout. This money may help reduce the digital divide. It also might not.

Some policymakers are calling for money to subsidize middle-mile networks. Because it is so difficult to precisely define “middle mile,” and therefore identify and measure its outcomes beyond simply being built, it’s hard for politicians and recipients of the money to resist their spending spree of federal funds regardless of whether it’s needed. More middle-mile funding can generate new construction and a ribbon-cutting ceremony, but nobody will ever know if it generated more broadband. 

[Sarah Oh Lam is a senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute]

In a period of only nine days—April 25 to May 3, 2023—the the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced initiatives to look at unfair and deceptive acts involving AI and proposed banning Meta Platforms from targeting young users. These come on top of two years of antitrust aggressiveness and consumer protection assertiveness. But both actions beg the question, “Are the tools strong enough for the task?” Both the AI and Meta activities are indications of the limitations that FTC Chair Lina Khan and the agency face as a result of being tied to industrial-era statutes and procedures.

Legislation aimed at regulating telecommunications operators is in the works and companies should hasten to prepare for what’s to come. A bill introduced to the Senate in March 2023 proposes to do away with “junk fees,” which are financial charges that President Joe Biden denounced in his State of the Union address.

 A rift at the heart of the telecommunications sector risks reversing decades of progress and plunging digital allies into a new phase of conflict. Europe’s telecom companies want US corporations such as Alphabet/Google, Netflix, Amazon, and Meta to pay for the increasing video traffic they generate. These US giants originate data accounting for around 50 percent of network loads.