Policymakers have long struggled to close a digital divide that leaves millions without access to broadband internet service. In recent years, another digital divide has emerged that involves the unevenness of cyber capacity-building and retention between regions. For the United States to remain the most dynamic and innovative tech powerhouse in the world, it is imperative for all its regions, and not merely a few rarefied clusters such as Silicon Valley, to foster and sustain research and development of cyber technologies for a 21st-century knowledge economy.
Encryption is often discussed as an issue of law enforcement, cybersecurity, or free expression for specific groups of users. However, encryption is crucial to the privacy and security of everyone who browses the internet, communicates online, or uses websites for convenient activities like banking, shopping, or tax filing. Now there is a vibrant discussion occurring among stakeholders and the general public about whether there should be any regulations on encryption available to consumers, or special provisions for access by law enforcement.
CTIA President Meredith Attwell Baker, representing wireless giants like AT&T and Verizon, paid a visit to Federal Communications Commission Ajit Pai Pai and FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly to lobby them to auction off licenses in the upper portion of the 6 GHz airwaves.
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