The Two Key Investments to Build Back Better Post-Sandy

[Commentary] What disempowered New Yorkers most wanted during the storm, in addition to safety and electricity, was a way to communicate. My suggestion: Prioritize rebooting communications infrastructure for New York City and its environs at the same time that we think seriously about water barriers and other infrastructural needs.

Our communications problems boil down to two central issues: Lack of capacity and lack of a safety net.

• Capacity first: If you've got dark fiber to every home and business (as in Stockholm), and cell towers covering smaller areas are everywhere they can be, calls don't drop and business transactions run smoother.
• Getting fiber everywhere requires lowering the cost of capital for wholesale, independent providers who can loosen Verizon's death grip on wires in New York City.
• Then we need a safety net: Many heart-wrenching stories this week illustrate the growing inequality in basic services across the city. The richest New Yorkers lead entirely separate lives from the people who work hourly jobs to provide the services that make New York City spin. Everyone needs to have an equal capacity to communicate, just as everyone needs electricity.

In a time when government services, job applications, educational opportunities and health information have all moved online, it's past time to put long-term, infrastructural policies in place that covers critical communications systems, including Internet access. Big government moves are necessary: making sure prices for Internet access are reasonable, that competitors can share the hardware belonging to incumbents, and that everyone gets the same level of open world-class Internet access. We did it for electricity. We did it for the telephone. Hurricane Sandy reminds us that we need to do it for Internet access as well.