C|Net

As Democrats in Congress wrestle over President Joe Biden's multitrillion-dollar package targeting everything from roads to child care, hanging in the balance is a small but critical sliver of the infrastructure bill seen as a possible salve to our digital divide problem. This legislation provides long-overdue funding to upgrade traditional infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and electrical grids. But also included in the bill is a proposal for $65 billion in federal funding for broadband investment.

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, sat before a Senate subcommittee for more than three hours and described how the social media giant has prioritized its profits over public good. In her testimony, Haugen called on Congress to regulate Facebook and require more transparency from the company on its practices.

For Federal Communications Commission Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, the moment is now to get the US on the right track toward ending the digital divide. That's what she's been trying to do with an influx of federal funding aimed at getting Americans connected to the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic. The crisis, which has hit low-income Americans and people of color especially hard, has brought attention to the digital divide and has spurred Congress to act, Rosenworcel said.

Most of us are still getting our heads wrapped around 5G, but some major tech players are well into the development of 6G. In broad strokes, 6G is envisioned as truly subsuming wireless connectivity into everything around us with network coverage and bandwidth availability so effortless we cease to worry about them.

Starry Internet is among the next generation of new wireless technologies that support high-speed, low-latency internet connectivity using millimeter-wave bands capable of sending large amounts of data over short distances. That sounds a lot like 5G, and I'd say it's definitely similar -- but Starry doesn't quite bill itself as a 5G home internet provider. Why not?