TechBytes

Bridging the digital divide has become an even higher policy priority. But what’s the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars to reach this relatively narrow slice of the American public?

The low-hanging fruit for expanding broadband access is clearing away barriers to deployment. With HB 1505, Texas has taken some significant steps to extend broadband access to the approximately 4 percent of Texans who lack it. Other states should follow the example.

Property rights are the foundation of a market economy. If you don’t have clear property rights, no one can really enter into contracts to buy and sell anything. 

Perhaps no federal official in recent memory has managed to demonstrate the superiority of property rights and free markets as well as Chairman Pai.

Antitrust reviews are the worst form of policymaking, with the government picking winners and losers, deciding what is “too big,” and otherwise carving up industry as if government has any understanding of business, innovation or even the effects of antitrust actions.  

The DoD is persuing a plan to operate a national 5G network but it seems to be shockingly unaware of the extent of technological innovation and progress in this country and how it came to be. 

If the goal is to ensure that low-income students have the digital tools needed to thrive during this school year, the city’s plan to build its own wireless network fails to come anywhere close to achieving it. 

Efforts to close the distance on the last mile of broadband now come down to arcane considerations like utility pole attachment. The FCC should clarify how pole replacement or upgrade costs should be fairly allocated between pole owners and broadband providers bringing broadband to unserved areas.

While the pandemic has imposed significant costs and losses on the economy, our broadband infrastructure has made it possible to work, shop, learn and be entertained while also maintaining social distancing, and is likely the single biggest factor in reducing the harm to the economy.

Under fairness or neutrality regulations for the internet, the most likely result is a chilling effect on internet free speech, under which platforms cannot run the liability risk of allowing political speech on their platforms.