The historic COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity for policymakers to examine the successes and failures of the nation’s broadband system. The stay-at-home orders, business closures, and social distancing necessary to fight coronavirus transmission generated a considerable increase in broadband traffic and a dramatic shift in usage patterns. The jump in demand has seen peak traffic roughly 20 to 30 percent higher than before the pandemic. Thankfully, the increase in broadband traffic was within the anticipated growth in demand operators could already accommodate. As such, U.S. broadband networks were able to accommodate these changes with virtually no drop in performance. The facilities-based competition model the United States relies on to incent providers to invest in infrastructure passed the COVID-19 network stress test, performing better than Internet infrastructure in many other countries. The dynamic broadband competition in the United States has driven billions of dollars into network capacity that met the surge in demand. The light-touch regulatory approach also allowed for network operators to flexibly adjust interconnection levels to meet new changes in demand.

Nonetheless, the COVID-19 pandemic also amplified some glaring failures with U.S. broadband policy. A persistent digital divide continues to mean not everyone is connected, whether it be due to a lack of infrastructure in rural, uneconomic areas, or a variety of adoption hurdles throughout the country. This evidence from the pandemic should galvanize policymakers and civil society to shift the conversation toward productive gap filling, rather than continuing the tired old debates around issues such as net neutrality and municipal broadband. 

The Federal Communications Commission announced that the post-incentive auction transition has successfully reached the July 13, 2020 deadline established for television stations to move off their pre-auction channel assignments. This milestone signals that all of the valuable low-band airwaves sold in the ground-breaking broadcast incentive auction are now available for wireless mobile broadband services. This newly licensed 600 MHz band spectrum is already benefiting millions of US consumers, as it is being used to provide wireless service, including 5G, across the country. And with the end of the transition, the broader deployment of this spectrum will further help close the digital divide in rural America, ease congestion on wireless networks, promote the widespread availability of 5G, and spur job creation and economic growth.

Distance learning in the pandemic highlights a problem that experts have warned about for years - some students have good access to the Internet, and others do not. It's called the digital divide. Many districts are about to start the school year with more distance learning, so how can they narrow that divide? Nicol Turner Lee thinks it's important for schools to put together what she calls the 21st-century remote access blueprint.

Telehealth services surged during the coronavirus pandemic, and yet we have to deal with the harsh reality that Black communities disproportionately lack access to the telecommunications services that provide access to critical, life-saving care. This is why I have called for an expansion of the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline program, which is the only federal subsidy that offers voice and broadband services at a subsidized rate to low-income Americans, to meet the critical needs of this moment in history. This program, which is vastly underutilized at an under 20 percent participation rate, can fulfill broadband and voice connection needs for many families that must choose between buying groceries versus purchasing an internet connection.

And I want to be clear; these glaring inequities have been a historical, structural failure that have always deserved our attention. However, in this moment and in this movement, I challenge all of us to rise to the occasion and address the issues of the digital divide through a lens of equity with the understanding that broadband access is a civil right we can’t afford to lose but many can’t afford to have.

Apparently, Britain will bar new deployments of Huawei equipment in its fledgling high-speed 5G network, in what is a major blow to the Chinese technology giant and a significant win for the Trump administration, which has been pressing allies to shun the firm. The British decision, expected to be announced July 14, is part of a growing shift away from China in the global 5G competition, especially among advanced democracies increasingly concerned that the firm’s ties to the Communist government create an unacceptable security risk. The Chinese crackdown in Hong Kong and Beijing’s lack of transparency on the origins of the coronavirus have added to concerns in Western capitals about using Chinese technology, apparently. Britain will also announce it will phase out over several years the small amount of Huawei 5G equipment installed in recent months.