To close digital equity gaps, US should endow a private Digital Futures Foundation

A high-stakes auction of government-owned airwaves to mobile broadband providers is set to drop a record windfall exceeding $80 billion into the US Treasury. Two additional auctions of wireless frequency bands, called spectrum, are on tap for 2021 and slated to follow the same course. The nation has become painfully aware of the digital divides that are widening inequality, slowing productivity, and impeding innovation. So, is dumping the proceeds from the privatization of the public airwaves into the federal Treasury, as is now routinely done, the best use of our nation’s precious resources? The answer is decidedly no. A Digital Futures Foundation, endowed with a meaningful portion of spectrum auction revenue, could fund the development of innovative digital software, such as new low- or no-cost interactive learning tools. It could pioneer applications of emerging artificial intelligence and augmented reality technologies for health care, energy conservation, smart city services, and more. And it could foster robust public-service digital media applications and content. By designating a portion of the tens of billions of dollars of spectrum auction proceeds recently generated and expected over the coming years to endow a private Digital Futures Foundation, Congress can take a giant step toward bridging America’s triple digital divide and setting us on a more reliable, economically sensible, and just digital course.

[Michael Calabrese directs the Wireless Future Project at New America. Lester Salamon directs the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies.]