Daily Digest 2/22/2021 (Arthur Rupert Neve)
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Mon, 02/22/2021
Pandemic puts money, political muscle behind broadband
Cooperatives: The Unsung Heroes of Broadband
Monday, February 22, 2021
February 2021
Speech
Speech
Cooperatives: The Unsung Heroes of Broadband
I believe deeply in the importance of connectivity and the role that counties and cooperatives play in that endeavor. I was asked to talk about a few things today: the importance of broadband in a time of COVID; the important role that cooperatives play in broadband deployment; and the different technologies that deliver broadband to our homes, offices, and schools. Let’s start with the importance of broadband.
Pandemic puts money, political muscle behind broadband
Now that the pandemic has made it clear just how essential it is to be connected to high-speed internet, lawmakers are finally putting billions of dollars into funding government programs to expand access to it. Urgency has also increased at the state level: 34 states enacted legislation or resolutions related to broadband development in 2020, per the
The Internet Is Splintering
Each country has its own car safety regulations and tax codes. But should every country also decide its own bounds for appropriate online expression? We probably don’t want internet companies deciding on the freedoms of billions of people, but we may not want governments to have unquestioned authority, either. Regulating online expression in any single country — let alone in the world — is a messy set of trade offs with no easy solutions. Let us lay out some of the issues: