USA Cares and Connected Nation are asking leaders to consider using a portion of the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund–which recently allocated $350 billion across states, territories and tribal governments to use for pandemic-related economic recovery activities–to provide immediate relief and long-term support for veterans and military spouses. USA Cares works daily with veterans struggling with financial needs and other challenges that made adapting to life outside the military difficult. Connected Nation, dedicated to helping local communities, states, and federal agencies create and implement solutions to their broadband and digital technology gaps, is setting up veterans and military spouses for long-term success through its Digital Works program. Together, they help veterans and military families with their immediate needs while setting them up for long-term success. The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds provide enough money to address both needs and still tackle other issues. US leaders have an unprecedented opportunity to help veterans and military spouses in their states, counties and cities, but they must act now.

[Trace Chesser is the president and CEO of USA Cares and Tom Ferree is the CEO and chairman of Connected Nation.]

The US faces complex choices in how to fix broadband infrastructure to close the digital divide. Governments, businesses, service providers, telecommunication infrastructure companies, and other players will need to work together to connect users in a scalable, cost-effective way while weighing new technology advancements to build a future-proof network available to and affordable for all. A key factor is dense and quick fiberization; the high cost of building infrastructure that supports both mobile and fixed-network functionality will drive operators to optimize investments to make the case work. In many cases, fiber will provide the necessary backbone to support hyperscale growth and future-proof networks. What’s also clear is that data consumption is growing relentlessly. With data consumption reaching unseen levels during the pandemic, it’s important to build new networks or modernize existing ones. Ultimately, the goal is to deliver on scale, latency and agility requirements that factor in the reality of customer demand and provider infrastructure–whether greenfield or brownfield–and prevent over or underbuilding of assets. Building a sophisticated optimal network that meets the most granular of requirements is a huge, daunting task, but new infrastructure providing internet access for all is more necessary than ever.

[Stephen Szymanski is the general manager for Americas at STL.]

AT&T struck a deal to carry Dish Network’s existing cellphone customers over its wireless network, bringing two erstwhile rivals closer as they each pursue more advanced 5G technology. The nonexclusive deal would pay AT&T at least $5 billion over 10 years to support Dish’s consumer cellphone brands, which include Boost Mobile, Ting, and Republic Wireless. The agreement also provides an avenue for AT&T to use some Dish wireless spectrum licenses to support both companies’ customers. The partnership will likely attract scrutiny from the Justice Department, which helped Dish’s entry into the wireless market through a complex deal that cleared the way for cellphone carrier T-Mobile US to buy Sprint. The government allowed the asset swaps to proceed under the assurance that Dish would build a new fifth-generation network over several years. Dish’s nearly 9 million wireless customers currently use T-Mobile’s network. The two companies have tussled over various issues, including T-Mobile’s plan to shut down its 3G network by Jan. 1, 2022. Dish has said the early sunset could cut off many of its customers who need more time to upgrade their cellphones to 4G and 5G smartphones. AT&T has said it would wind down its 3G service in early 2022.

At the start of the pandemic, a group of data scientists at Facebook held a meeting with executives to ask for resources to help measure the prevalence of misinformation about Covid-19 on the social network. The data scientists said figuring out how many Facebook users saw false or misleading information would be complex, perhaps taking a year a more, according to two people who participated in the meeting. But they added that by putting some new hires on the project and reassigning some existing employees to it, the company could better understand how incorrect facts about the virus spread on the platform. The executives never approved the resources, and the team was never told why. Now, more than a year later, Facebook has been caught in a firestorm about the very type of information that the data scientists were hoping to track.