Op-Ed

On the morning of Februaru 23, millions who depend on a 3G wireless connected device for medical emergencies, fires, burglaries or carbon monoxide detection will find their lives needlessly at risk. These devices will not work when AT&T shuts down its 3G network on February 22, threatening tens of millions of people relying on them in their homes and businesses. Known as the 3G sunset, those affected include hundreds of thousands of people who have personal emergency response systems (PERS).

As the federal government readies $65 billion for broadband adoption, local leaders should make thoughtful, culturally-responsive strategies that connect all of our communities.

Visionary Broadband in Wyoming focuses on providing quality internet service by customizing products for underserved and rural markets, with a recent emphasis on fiber technology. The company was founded 27 years ago in a small, blue house by three friends who merely wanted internet access. Once they figured out how to get themselves connected, they began getting requests to help others get access as well. Twenty-seven years later, Visionary Broadband employs around 160 people. The idea that the internet could and should be available to anyone was the reason Visionary Broadband came to be.

As we move past the first anniversary of the Biden administration taking office, it’s a good moment to start defining the Biden Tech Doctrine based on what we’ve seen so far. There’s a dynamic in some sibling relationships—a big brother who squabbles with his younger siblings at home but is the first to defend them when someone picks on them at school.

In the past year, the growing demand to open America’s airwaves for 5G and next-generation connectivity has only increased, bringing national attention to spectrum’s role in closing the digital divide and solidifying global telecommunications leadership. Yet, as demand has increased, the availability of much-needed commercial spectrum has waned, putting more pressure on the nation’s spectrum experts at the Federal Communications Commission to identify and unleash different bands — like the 12 GHz spectrum band — for new uses.

Far faster mobile broadband speeds and new services on your 5G-enabled smartphone or a greater risk that your next flight crashes on landing? This should be a false choice in tech-savvy America.

The Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) has been funding infrastructure since its original inception in 1935 as the Rural Electrification Service. The agency is currently accepting ReConnect loan and grant applications for broadband projects with the latest round making available $750 million available in grant monies, $250 million available in a combination of loans and grants and another $200 million in loans available at a fixed 2% interest rate. Meanwhile, the agency has recently funded more miles of fiber than power line using electric funding.

Starlink faces many challenges in order to provide a robust commercial service, and ultimately to become financially sustainable so that potential customers can rely on it in the longer term. Some of the technical limitations of the Starlink service mean that it will never be possible to rely solely on Starlink to provide universal service outside the range of terrestrial broadband solutions.

In November 2021, Congress passed the long-stalled $1 trillion dollar bipartisan infrastructure package. This includes a $65 billion dollars in federal finding for broadband. This investment, which includes potentially hundreds of millions of dollars for Michigan to extend broadband to smaller towns and rural reaches, promises to stitch these communities and their residents into our global tech-driven economy — giving them a chance to learn and do business with the world.

Being on social media can feel a bit like living in a new kind of city. My job used to be to protect the city. I was a member of the Facebook Civic Integrity team. My coworkers and I researched and fixed integrity problems—abuses of the platform to spread hoaxes, hate speech, harassment, calls to violence, and so on. Over time, we became experts, thanks to all the people, hours, and data thrown at the problem. As in any community of experts, we all had at least slightly different ways of looking at the problem. For my part, I started to think like an urban planner.