Now is the Time to Get the Questions Right

For those of us who spent the last four years fighting a totally depressing battle against the last Administration’s nuclear attack on the public interest, springtime has brought the hope of rebirth, regeneration, and reform.   In media and telecom (my beat) we already see the budding of policies and programs to reverse the nation’s embarrassing broadband shortfalls.  Broadband is now seen as essential infrastructure, as important to twenty-first-century life as electricity was to the twentieth.  Not only that, but understanding broadband as a civil right seems to be taking hold.  Better late than never. No one can be a fully functioning and participating citizen in today’s society without access to high-speed and affordable communications. The pandemic demonstrated how necessary broadband is for our jobs, our schooling, our health, our civic dialogue, even our practice of religions. To see the Biden Administration and many in Congress making broadband a national priority is truly encouraging. Tens of millions of households are waiting for their tickets to a better future.

[Michael Copps served as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from May 2001 to December 2011 and was the FCC's Acting Chairman from January to June 2009. He is now with Common Cause.]