As America approaches ‘internet for all,’ deep caution for ‘middle mile’ detour

In 2021, Congress and the administration agreed upon a bipartisan approach to bridging differences in digital investment and delivery. But now, even before a single dollar of the bill’s rural broadband deployment funding has gone out the door, governors in both red and blue states are rushing to pour tax dollars into an entirely different strategy they hope will solve the same problem, and a new Senate bill proposes to potentially spend billions more replicating these state initiatives nationwide. Even for Washington, DC, this bipartisan rush to ramp funding for “middle mile” networks is a bit of a head-scratcher. Most areas of our country already have an extremely robust middle-mile infrastructure. Private investment has jumped at the opportunity to meet this market demand, which is only growing as wireless providers build or contract to backhaul their data from cell towers to their core networks. And in those few places where federal subsidies may be necessary to fill middle mile gaps, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's (IIJA) Middle Mile Grant Program is already committing $1 billion through competitive bidding. The first awards under that program won’t even be announced until February 2023, much less completed. Does it really make sense to dump additional stacks of taxpayer funding onto the bonfire before seeing whether the initial billion dollars can provide the promised heat? Let’s keep our eye on the ball and focus on getting the first $65 billion right before asking taxpayers to throw billions more after it.

[Michael O’Rielly served as a Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission. He is currently a visiting fellow at Hudson Institute, senior fellow at the Media Institute, and president of MPORielly Consulting, LLC. He also sits on APCO Worldwide’s International Advisory Council.]