Tech-world insiders are getting more involved than ever in national politics this year—and it’s not just Elon Musk. But as the presidential election looms, there’s a major disconnect between American politics and Big Tech when it comes to their visions of America’s future. On the campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris talks about the risk of “more chaos,” incipient fascism and a quick, steep slide back to the gender politics of the 1950s. Meanwhile, the retrograde cultural assumptions of former President Donald Trump’s platform were on full display at Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile in Silicon Valley, AI entrepreneurs promise a world where there’s little to be afraid of (except maybe overregulation) — and nostalgia is nothing but a brake on a future we should be ushering in as quickly as possible. The mismatch between the mindset driving tech—the engine of America’s prestige and global economic dominance—and the mindset driving American politics has never been sharper, and it’s upending technopolitics on the campaign trail.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from New York, allowing the state to request access to more than $36 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. This funding comes from the $1.44 billion State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program, one of three Digital Equity Act grant programs created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. New York will use its $36,984,641 in funding to implement key digital equity initiatives, including:

• Fund new and existing programs that distribute new and refurbished devices, such as computers or laptops
• Fund tech support programs as a job-readiness pathway
• Develop digital safety trainings that protect against stolen data, scams, surveillance and online harassment

AT&T subsidiary Wisconsin Bell last recently reiterated its argument to the Supreme Court that telecommunications companies should not be hit with tougher fines for fraudulent reimbursement requests to a major broadband subsidy program. The company is seeking to overturn a Seventh Circuit ruling that found the False Claims Act applies to reimbursements from the E-Rate program, a broadband subsidy for schools and libraries funded by the $8-billion-per-year Universal Service Fund. The act calls for damages tripling the amount of fraudulently obtained government money, plus mandatory civil penalties. “What matters under the FCA is that requests for money supplied by private carriers to a private corporation pose no risk of loss to the government,” Wisconsin Bell wrote in an Oct. 24 reply brief.

With a federal court recently declaring the funding mechanism for a major low-income connectivity program unconstitutional, telecommunications policy experts are actively discussing alternative solutions to keep essential broadband programs funded. Roslyn Layton, executive vice president of Strand Consult, met with the Federal Communications Commission to propose expanding the $8.1 billion Universal Service Fund’s funding base in a way that avoids the financial burden falling on consumers. Layton said contributions from industries that benefit from broadband networks—such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), and digital advertising—would establish a sustainable $15 billion annual fund to support both the USF and the Affordable Connectivity Program.

Attorneys for the Federal Communications Commission and groups representing the broadband industry argued about the future of net neutrality to a panel of appeals court judges on October 31. The hearing was part of an endless political ping-pong game over net neutrality rules—which reclassify internet service providers (ISPs) as common carriers, barring them from selectively throttling web traffic. After being enacted under President Barack Obama and repealed under his successor, Donald Trump, they were reinstated by Joe Biden’s FCC in April. The latest iteration didn’t get far since the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals put the rules on hold while it considers the case. Much of the hearing focused on the significance of the “major questions” doctrine, which says Congress must explicitly grant agencies the power to make certain decisions, and the end of a doctrine known as Chevron deference, which instructed judges to defer to agency expertise. In a post-Chevron world, courts have far more liberty to make their own determinations about whether a policy like net neutrality should exist. While net neutrality has always faced its challenges, these changes make its path to implementation even harder.

Not only does fiber increase the power and capability of the home, but it also adds to the overall value of the real estate and its ability to be sold more quickly as buyers look for reliable high-speed broadband for work-from-home, telehealth, gaming, streaming, and smart home devices such as security cameras and personal assistance. According to Adtran, consumer needs for more broadband are growing every year. U.S. Internet adoption has increased to 81% of households, telehealth popularity has doubled year-over-year since 2020, e-commerce is expected to reach $8.1 trillion by 2026, and in-home devices have increased to 22 per home in 2024. Additional research from Adtran shows both business and residential consumption have increased since 2017, with an overall 21.2% CAGR for residents. By enabling all of these applications to be run on high-speed, low-latency broadband, fiber increases the value of the home, according to platforms such as Doorify MLS. The MLS service, the 33rd largest in the U.S., provides competing real estate and brokers to share information about houses, land, and buildings, such as size, amenities, and internet access.