In Dec 2019, I spoke to the members of Gov Roy Cooper’s (D-NC) broadband task force and noted how, from the viewpoint of anyone looking objectively at the issue of broadband access, the public-private partnership model advocated by the NC League of Municipalities (NCLM) is a “no-brainer.” Obviously, a lot has happened in the world since then. The legislation that our organization backed, the FIBER NC Act, did not pass in 2020 largely based on opposition by the larger incumbent telecommunications companies. It has simply become unacceptable and unconscionable that a handful of companies stand in the way of allowing this to happen almost a decade after banding together to block municipalities from building and operating their own systems, and proclaiming as they did so that they would address the digital divide in the state. The North Carolina General Assembly should make its first priority upon meeting in January passage of legislation that incorporates the principles of the FIBER NC Act and takes another substantial step in closing our digital divide.

[Paul Meyer is the Executive Director of NC League of Municipalities]

Promised to be a faster, more reliable cell network, 5G requires the construction of thousands upon thousands of small cell towers just a few blocks apart. Indigenous nations like the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas are in a difficult situation. The offices are woefully underfunded, which makes it impossible for Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPOs) to process the hundreds of 5G requests each week, and if tribes don’t respond, construction of a tower could damage religious places, cemeteries, or other historic sites. “Tribes are inundated with requests for consultation and because there is so much expansion happening with our telecommunications in the United States, that means that any given tribe might be getting anywhere from a couple to a couple hundred requests over the course of a month,” said Shasta Gaughen, a board member for the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers. “The risk is that there’s just so much going through the system, that a tribe, especially an under-resourced tribe, runs the risk of missing the opportunity to comment.”

The construction of cell towers in Indigenous territories has long been an issue. In 2018, Ajit Pai, the Trump administration’s appointment to the Federal Communications Commission, circumvented the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) by exempting small cell towers under 50 feet from review, and blocking tribal governments from reviewing and regulating tower construction. 5G cell towers are built under 50 feet. In response, more than 20 tribes nationwide filed a lawsuit in 2019 claiming the FCC didn’t have the authority to exempt tower construction from NHPA or NEPA review. A U.S. court of appeals ruled in favor of the tribes, but it allowed the FCC to block tribes from charging consultation or administrative fees. Indigenous nations are not getting paid for consulting and are not even benefiting from the work they are doing.

Dozens of tech hubs around the world have dreamed of nipping at Silicon Valley’s heels, but in 2020 those dreams are starting to look like reality. Thanks to Covid-19, “the spreading out of tech is having a 10-year acceleration,” says Rana Sarkar, Canada’s consul general for San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Before the pandemic, mid-size cities across North America and Europe and major Asian centers would create startup accelerators only to struggle to retain their local talent or attract venture capital — one of the leading measures of success, pre-pandemic. Today it’s more about keeping talent at your company, wherever that talent happens to be. “The more broadly we can appeal to people, in terms of letting them work from anywhere and ... letting them contribute at a high level from anywhere, that’s our plan,” said Okta CEO Todd McKinnon. Silicon Valley’s ability to cluster talent has long been tied to colleges like Stanford University and a profusion of venture capital. Stanford is going strong — pandemic disruptions notwithstanding — but Palo Alto’s famed Sand Hill Road is no longer the only place startup founders flock as they seek to raise cash. The world’s biggest tech-focused venture capital fund is now SoftBank’s Vision Fund, which is Japanese-owned and Saudi-financed.