Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) plugged his STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act, S. 3157, which would override local rules and limit fees for installing 5G infrastructure. But despite Chairman Thune talking it up, local officials seem to have succeeded at beating back the legislation through steady opposition — although they failed to stop the Federal Communications Commission's vote approving a similar regulatory measure. Opponents of the bill may have run out the clock. No hearing is scheduled, and there's scant time before this current session of Congress ends. Chairman Thune once hoped to mark up the legislation as long as 10 months ago but faced delays amid pushback from municipal, state, public power and utility groups. They negotiated with staff for months before the bill’s introduction in June and offered broad objections afterward (Chairman Thune had circulated a draft version back in October 2017).

There are too many places in this country, especially in rural America, that lack the basic infrastructure that will be needed to enable 5G service. We have data that shows this. But we are currently relying too much on the Federal Communications Commission’s Form 477 data, which only tells part of the story. If we want all Americans to have the kind of broadband access needed to compete in the modern world, we need to know the full story. That’s why Congress directed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to improve data associated with the national broadband map. At the beginning of summer 2018, NTIA asked for comments from the public on ways to increase the quality and accuracy of broadband availability data. We received 53 sets of comments indicating a variety of data sources and approaches that we can use to support these efforts. Our plan now is to take a phased approach to collecting the data we need to make a broadband availability map that shows the true picture of where we are. We will be working with states that already have collected broadband availability data, or had otherwise strong broadband programs. This will allow us to get the most value for the resources allocated to us by Congress. By the end of 2018 we will be issuing a request for proposals for additional data, and a technology service provider that will help us integrate all of the data sources we can bring together.

As the connectivity versus local control debate rages on, the prospect of 5G infrastructure blanketing the country remains a far-off concept in many areas. A growing number of cities are announcing partnerships with telecommunication providers, but many rural areas continue to struggle to connect their citizens at all. Earlier in 2018 at the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) Midyear Conference in Baltimore (MD), KY CIO Charles Grindle discussed the possibility of bypassing fiber and broadband in order to connect the remaining 20 percent of his state that lacks Internet access. 5G, he said, should be considered, especially if the infrastructure can be installed at a lower cost than other options. NE has a similar challenge, as CIO Ed Toner explained. "4G would be great when you’re in far western Nebraska," Toner said, referring to some of the more remote areas of the state. But there may be reason for hope. The upcoming FirstNet network promises network infrastructure that will complement the state's existing efforts.  "FirstNet, we're hoping, is going to be a big boon to our rural communities because AT&T has given us a great map of where they're going to be in five years," he said.

Gov Jerry Brown (D-CA) signed a network neutrality bill into law.  A hefty thank you to the Golden State for your effort to get right what the Federal Communications Commission got wrong when it wiped out our open internet protections late in 2017. The FCC's misguided decision to roll back net neutrality gave broadband providers the green light to block websites, throttle services, and censor online content. That’s why the CA law is a welcome development—it’s good for consumers, good for businesses, and good for anyone who connects and creates online. The Department of Justice has signaled that it will challenge CA's new law in court.  Regrettably, this confirms that Washington is not listening to the American people. But I remain hopeful because the fight to save net neutrality lives on in the courts, in governors' actions, in state legislatures, in big cities and small towns, and with citizens across the country.

Cox Communications announced the overwhelmingly positive results of a survey of Connect2Compete program participants, a program designed for low-income families in need of internet access at home. The vast majority of parents agree low-cost internet service at home gives children a leg up for high school graduation (91 percent) and helps students get higher grades (89 percent). During a press conference in Washington (DC), Cox President Pat Esser also announced Cox is expanding its commitment to bridge the digital divide with a commitment of $20 million annually. Joined by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and Founder of EveryoneOn, Zach Leverenz, Esser revealed the company surpassed a significant program milestone and is expanding its commitment to bridge the digital divide during the press event.  To date, more than 400,000 people have been connected to the internet via the Connect2Compete program and the company continues to invest in the program. 

Late in Aug, the US Department of Agriculture announced plans to add $600 million to fund e-Connectivity, a pilot program aimed at bridging the rural digital divide by improving broadband internet access for American farmers. But the rural digital divide is wider than ever, as farmers struggle to run tech-dependent businesses without broadband. On the farm, spotty or limited internet coverage can be a costly problem. “Whether you’re on Wall Street or out here in the middle of Kansas, data equals dollars,” says Shawn Tiffany, owner and operator of Tiffany Cattle, a cattle feedlot located in Herington (KS). 

Tiffany, who sits on the board of a rural telecom provider and is familiar with its business challenges, is sympathetic to the position rural carriers find themselves in as it’s tough to make a financial case for some of these services when the return on investment just isn’t there. That’s why the government funding was put in place to begin with, but Tiffany is worried about the new farm bill funding provisions, saying they seem to favor wireless technology rather than an investment in the necessary infrastructure. “I’m not going to say we'll never get fiber but it's going to make it very very difficult to put [new] fiber in [at this point].”

Providing high-speed internet in rural MN today is as vital as providing rural electricity was some 80 years ago, said Jason Hollinday, planning director for the Fond du Lac (MN) Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. That’s why the band has taken the unusual step of creating its own broadband company to provide fiber-optic internet service throughout its reservation, about 20 miles west of Duluth. “We’re giving people the tools to live in the 21st century,” Hollinday said. “It’s like when they were electrifying the rural areas. This is the modern version of that.” The band has created a corporation, Aaniin, to build and provide fiber-optic service to all residents of the reservation, whether or not they’re tribal members. Main lines are in the process of being laid and should be completed sometime in Nov; workers then will begin the process of running fiber-optic lines to as many as 1,800 households on the roughly 39,000-acre reservation.

In the latest episode of the podcast Crazy/Genius, we ask why the dream of the digital revolution has proven so disappointing for some of its early advocates. One of those dreamers was Meredith Broussard, a computer scientist and a data journalist, who entered Harvard University in 1991, just months after Tim Berners-Lee launched the first website. “The early Internet was deeply groovy,” Broussard said, a place where idealistic young men and women thought they could redesign the rules of society. But Broussard soon switched her major when she found the computer science track at Harvard to be marred by sexism. Today, she says, many of the tech industry’s failures stem from a force she calls “technochauvinism.” This is not only a critique of the software industry’s infamous gender inequality, which makes it difficult for women’s perspective to be considered in designing tech. It is also chauvinism in the original sense of the word: a presumption that the most advanced technological solution is inherently the best one. The only way to make technology that helps a broad array of people is to consult a broad array of people to make that technology. But the computer industry has a multi-decade history of gender discrimination.

One component of the traditional relationship between the media and the president is that, when the president isn’t available to answer questions, his press secretary will do so. But over the past three months, the White House has held only nine “daily” news briefings and one additional, less formal press gaggle. Since July 1, the White House has spent about 4½ hours in news briefings and gaggles, including three briefings in which someone besides Sarah Huckabee Sanders occupied most of the time. There was no single month during 2016 in which President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Josh Earnest, spent less than nine hours briefing the media.  Press secretaries often play a role in the natural tension between an elected president and a demanding media. Sanders’s role is to shield President Donald Trump from questions and to criticize them so that Trump can keep his hands clean. But Trump doesn’t care about that insulation. He rejects it. He wants the press to feel, directly from him, his anger and dismissiveness.