In 2017, investment in broadband rose by $1.5 billion to $76.3 billion. This reversed a decline of approximately $3.2 billion in 2015-16. What made the difference? Regulation.
Op-eds
5G Can Help Save Lives
5G’s ability to handle massive amounts of data flowing from multiple points allows healthcare professionals to monitor patients and identify those at risk sooner and with greater accuracy than ever before.
It’s Time for Leaders of America’s Top Tech Companies to Make Diversity a Priority and Not Just a Promise
The failure to implement a real strategy to diversify the tech workforce is the equivalent of saying tech companies do not have the will to reach this goal. It’s time for the leaders at America’s top tech companies to apply “strategery” and take the necessary measures to fix their diversity disaster once and for all.
Telemedicine Bridges Time and Space to Save Lives
Telemedicine allows healthcare professionals to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients in remote locations using communications technology. And the advances in telemedicine will only grow as we move into a 5G world, benefitting healthcare around the globe and helping to close the urban-rural divide.
The Internet is Waiting for Congress to Take Action on Privacy
While the European Union and the state of California have been devising comprehensive privacy protection systems within their regulatory borders, the United States government has chosen not to regulate, or to regulate only a limited number of data controllers. It is time for Congress to create a unified privacy law that applies to all players equally.
California’s Net Neutrality Adventure: Right Goal, Wrong Path
California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 822 that adopts a state-level net neutrality requirement for broadband providers operating in California. However well-intentioned this effort may be, it is deeply legally flawed. It also contains substantive provisions that would serve as a major barrier to broadband investment.
Accelerating 5G Will Be Good for America
The U.S. relies on the private sector rather than government for 5G-related investments, and that gives us flexibility to adapt to market conditions. But it also requires getting the policies and standards right to ensure early and broad deployment of 5G.
FCC’s New Frontier: Time to Auction 2.5 GHz Spectrum to Close Homework Gap
The majority of today’s teachers routinely make homework assignments with the expectation that students will go online to complete the work. But students don’t have equal access to high-speed broadband. One straightforward way increase access to high-speed broadband is a spectrum auction to repurpose a currently-underutilized spectrum band and open up more wireless capacity for everyone, including for educational use.
Privacy Topping Public Policy Priority List, At Last, With FTC Hearings
Protecting consumer privacy online and consumer data is not a flash in the pan. It will require constant vigilance — by the FTC, by all companies in the internet ecosystem and, of course, by consumers.
Congress Needs to Put the Net Neutrality Debate to Rest to Help Close the Digital Divide
The statutory designation of broadband as a Title I information service is one key to putting the net neutrality debate to rest, and it’s also essential to creating a regulatory climate appropriate for broadband investment in rural areas.
Congress Got This One Right – Retire Old Regulations
Virtually all American businesses have access to BDS. There is simply no justification for intrusive regulation in a market that, by the FCC’s own data, is working and competitive.
FCC Should Follow Signposts for Change With Mobile Broadband
A new survey shows just how fast the market for broadband is changing. Consumers no longer see mobile and fixed internet access alternatives as fundamentally different but use different types of broadband access in similar ways. In other words, mobile and fixed broadband are now functional substitutes.