Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

The global economy is increasingly digitalized. Countries that wish to successfully compete in the global digital economy must cultivate workforces possessing the requisite digital skills so that industries, enterprises, and even individuals can thrive in the digital environment. This report explores the state of digital skills across the US economy, examining what they are, why they matter, the current extent of workforce digitalization, and how the United States fares in international digital skills comparisons.

Open Radio Access Networks (Open RANs) would define open standards and interfaces between components of wireless RANs, providing a unique opportunity to diversify the supply chain by separating today’s integrated, single-provider RAN systems into modular parts. This report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation provides the history of Open RAN, the technology's benefits and challenges, and recommendations for policymakers. The key takeaways are:

Municipal broadband is unlikely to scale well to fit U.S. broadband needs. Broadband requires constant investment and innovation; it is not a type of infrastructure that remains future-proof without continued development. It also benefits from economies of scale. So if the goal is to get as many Americans online as possible, policy should prioritize efficient spending and allow for an environment where those most optimized to succeed can compete without unnecessary barriers. In a few instances, that may in fact be municipal broadband.

Calls for symmetrical broadband speeds (the same speeds for uploads as downloads) have circulated in telecom policy circles for over a decade. Early support for broadband symmetry was largely ideological in nature, based on the belief that individuals could play a bigger role in generating content, and symmetry was necessary to put production on equal footing with consumption of content. Recent efforts to promote symmetrical networks, however, appear aimed at shaping a potential infrastructure subsidy program.

Any national infrastructure package should include 21st century digital infrastructure—not only investments in core digital infrastructure, such as broadband and government IT systems, but also hybrid-digital upgrades to existing physical infrastructure to improve its performance. There is an array of areas any infrastructure bill should target to ensure digital infrastructure deployment.

Despite years of effort and tens of billions of dollars in subsidies, the United States still faces a stubborn rural-urban broadband gap. A large, one-time injection of federal capital can succeed in bridging the rural broadband divide if it is reasonably targeted and allocated through a reverse-auction program that serves as a transition away from the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund. The current FCC program is funded through regressive fees levied on a shrinking base of telecommunications services.