U.S. must stop arguing and close the broadband gap
Broadband, sometimes called the “Fifth Utility,” has become a critical part of 21st-century life — equal in importance to electricity, natural gas, water and sanitation. As more common daily life activities like paying bills or applying for jobs move to the internet, and wired phone service is abandoned in favor of cellular, people lacking access to wireless telecommunications are increasingly at a great disadvantage. Lack of robust access to wireless data service creates a socioeconomic problem referred to as the broadband gap.
Wireless data and voice communications are critical tools for our daily lives, and we expect our access to it to be fast, robust, and available everywhere all the time. When you can’t get a cellular signal and there’s no Wi-Fi, you feel cut off and trapped.
Data usage, especially on mobile devices like smartphones, is exponentially increasing and is exceeding the existing system’s ability to support it. We must update and expand the infrastructure that provides these broadband services.
Unfortunately, we lack a unified national vision for how to make this happen. Debates are
raging at the local, state and federal level about how to classify broadband internet under Federal Communications Commission rules, how much flexibility broadband providers have to tune their service offerings, and how to balance the need to build telecommunications infrastructure against the need for local governments to manage and control public property.
In late September, the FCC issued an order and declaratory ruling for wireless facilities — enhancing a 1996 law that constrained a local government’s ability to prohibit deployment of wireless facilities. Without the 1996 law, we would not have the wireless networks we have today.
Some have argued that the FCC’s recent order and ruling goes too far, stripping local governments of their ability to negotiate good deals with the wireless industry for use of public property. Others argue that the order and ruling is necessary and justified based on cases where local governments have either openly banned wireless facilities or effectively banned them by demanding exorbitant prices, dragging out review and permitting processes for years, or implementing other procedural barriers.
Both sides agree that the pace of wireless network construction and expansion has not kept up with demand. Even today in Silicon Valley, which was a major developer of radio and wireless technology long before the first silicon transistor was invented, it’s not hard to find places where the only available wireless service is older, 3G technology.
We can and must do better. At Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s Wireless Communications Initiative, we’ve been working to resolve these conflicts by convening stakeholders from both the wireless industry and local governments to reach consensus and a shared vision for the region’s wireless future. We believe that dialogue between stakeholders at the regional level is the best approach to balancing needs and wants from both the wireless industry and local governments.
The impact of our work could be significant. The wireless industry is poised to invest nearly $275 billion over the next five years in deployment of nextgeneration wireless technology in the United States alone. That’s a level of investment exceeded only by the federal government’s investment in the interstate highway system during the Cold War. $275 billion will be the largest private investment in national infrastructure ever made.
Despite this potential for massive private investment in our regional, state and national infrastructure, divergence in vision for our country’s broadband future is growing. The importance of wireless broadband must rise above pedantic partisan bickering.
Our citizens can and should contact their representatives and insist that they set aside partisan bickering and focus on defining a long-term vision for our country’s telecommunications future. You can learn more and get involved by subscribing to our mailing list at www.jointventure.org/wireless.