Our Balkanized Broadband Leadership

Congress inserted an interesting requirement into the bill that reauthorizes the funding for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Both the House and Senate added language that would require that a national broadband plan be created that would try to put the Federal Communications Commission, the NTIA, US Department of Agriculture, and other agencies on the same page. This legislation makes sense, because it’s clear that the three agencies do not coordinate in trying to solve broadband gaps—if anything they are competing and trying to one-up each other. The genesis of the plan came from a GAO report from 2022 that said that there was a balkanized approach to federal funding programs aimed at solving the rural digital divide. I have very little faith that the broadband coordination proposed by Congress will do the slightest bit of good. When President Biden came into office, he ordered the three agencies to coordinate efforts, which obviously fell on deaf ears.