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Our broadband system needs help. Americans have vastly different abilities to get online or to connect at decent speeds, depending on where they live. The problem is acute in rural areas but also in cities where certain neighborhoods, often those populated by communities of color, can have far worse connections than people living just a few miles away.

Under the surface of Washington’s negotiations over infrastructure – and buried in jargon like "municipal networks" and "overbuilding" – is a debate about how Americans may get their internet in the years ahead. Will your broadband bill come from a purely private company or will it be more like a public utility? The Biden administration wants to at least nudge the country toward the latter. The effort is being led by Vice President Kamala Harris and one aspect of the administration's plan would encourage government-owned broadband networks.

With everyone at home using so much broadband during coronavirus shutdowns, are our networks at risk of being overwhelmed? The short answer is no, according to Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr. Regarding the reduction in streaming quality in Europe by major entertainment companies, Commissioner Carr said, “We don't see any issues like that at all in the U.S. network,” he said. “We've pushed more high capacity spectrum out to wireless providers. And they can turn that out immediately.

North Dakota has fostered a tech sector thanks in part to being one of the most connected states in the country — a giant feat considering it’s also one of the most rural. “We realized that for us to be competitive, we had to have that connectivity,” says Doug Burgum, who was president of Great Plains Software when it was bought by Microsoft and is now governor of the state. 

While the urban world is talking about the power and promise of 5G, much of rural America is still having trouble getting online. While the Federal Communications has launched the Rural Digital Opportunites Fund,  Land O’Lakes Chief Executive Beth Ford said, “It’s not that that’s nothing. I mean, that’s real money. But it’s inadequate. And then I meet constantly with governors, and they’re putting something -- 10 million in the budget or 20 million... And it feels like we’re in the couch looking for the quarters and nickels. And that’s not going to get us there.

The purported details in the account of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, seemed improbable on their face: that Seth Rich, a data director in the Democratic National Committee’s voter protection division, was on his way to alert the FBI to corrupt dealings by Hillary Clinton when he was slain in the early hours of a Sunday morning by the former secretary of state’s hit squad.

The Federal Communications Commission's broadband map, which invites you to plug in street addresses to see which companies sell service there and at what speeds, is a failure. It’s built on old and fuzzy data filed by internet providers that sometimes don’t even know where they offer service. And this stunted cartography of connectivity doesn’t just sandbag house hunters researching their biggest expense; it also holds back government efforts to cover broadband gaps -- for instance, the 5G-broadband agenda the Trump administration outlined April 12 that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said will incl