Op-Ed

Passage of the Infrastructure legislation on November 5 was truly historic—surely the biggest boost ever to bringing high-speed broadband to every American household. While we get about the job of building broadband, we need to take up other communications issues that have been of even longer gestation and which have just as much, maybe more, urgency for our country. High on my list is media reform.

What is missing in the focus on getting laptops in the hands of children is the social component of learning—a component all too often taken for granted or even disparaged. As a culture, the United States has long loved the heroic idea of children teaching themselves. Movies and stories constantly retell this narrative of scrappy young people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. These myths are especially common regarding technical knowledge.

Amazon, Boeing and a bunch of other companies may soon join Elon Musk’s SpaceX in beaming internet service from space. Yes, it is cool, but the companies involved and people excited about satellite internet tend to overstate how much good it can realistically do. There are limits to the technology, and structural barriers to internet access cannot be solved by technology alone. Nearly all policy experts and technologists whom I’ve spoken to about satellite internet services say the same thing: Satellite internet won’t be realistic for most people and places.

Under the guidance of the San Joaquin Regional Broadband Consortium (SJVRBC), and with support from the California Emerging Technology Fund, the #SanJoaquinValleyNetwork initiative's goal is to bring ubiquitous broadband to the eight counties that compromise the San Joaquin Valley, among the most underserved regions of the state and underestimated in ability to lead and drive change. The San Joaquin Valley counties will be organizing and planning under the auspices of SJVRBC to obtain the maximum amount of financial assistance to implement the goals of #SanJoaquinValleyNetwork.

On November 1, President Biden joined world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. Broadband also is a “green strategy” that can help lessen impacts on the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and is a key linchpin, as is housing, for a triple bottom-line strategy to promote sustainability: prosperous economy, quality environment, and community equity.

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) and its network contractor AT&T are working to bring FirstNet’s unique capabilities to areas historically prone to communication challenges. FirstNet currently provides over 2.71 million square miles of coverage and new cell sites are launching nationwide, including in Tribal communities such as the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho, the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota, and the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.

Being digitally connected is such a central feature of our lives that we don’t often stop to think about how it actually works. Transient data, a combination of ones and zeros, pass through a surprisingly tangible physical infrastructure of fiber optic cables connecting centralized data servers — infrastructure that is vulnerable to an increasingly erratic and punishing climate. The reality of digital disconnection was brought into sharper focus during the COVID-19 pandemic; fundamental aspects of our daily lives shifted online instantly, from schooling to remote work to health care.

Located on the shores of Lake Erie, Cleveland suffers from the highest rates of child poverty and the lowest rates of broadband access among the large cities in the United States.

Amid significant poverty and a lack of robust infrastructure, 40 percent of Detroit residents struggle to access reliable broadband service. Fortunately, organizations like the Detroit Community Technology Project (DCTP) exist to challenge the status quo.

Blue River, the hub of the McKenzie River Valley in rural Lane County, Oregon, is no stranger to natural disasters. In September 2020, this former mining and timber town burned to the ground in the Holiday Farm fire. However, despite the challenges, Blue River’s story is one of resilience. It’s the story of a town’s desire to not merely survive but thrive.