It’s welcome news that Big Tech is investing billions in AI infrastructure, but who’s really paying for the broadband networks that help make those AI investments profitable? That burden is increasingly falling on America’s aging Universal Service Fund, which since 1998 has supported broadband deployment in rural communities, low-income households, schools, libraries and hospitals. The fund is financed mostly by telephone subscriptions—many of them paid by seniors on fixed incomes. The more AI-generated traffic Big Tech sends down the pipe, the more costs are passed along to these landline users who don’t generate that traffic and don’t profit from it. There’s a structural mismatch here. The companies driving the majority of broadband traffic—eight platforms that account for about 65 percent of fiber and cable traffic and 68 percent of mobile network traffic—pay little to nothing to support the fund. The fund was created before the commercialization of the Internet. That world has changed, but the funding model hasn’t. Big Tech benefits every time someone connects to the internet; it’s time to update the rules so that those who benefit most from universal connectivity help sustain it.

[Roslyn Layton is an American broadband economist at Strand Consult.]

On August 12, California State and Tribal leaders gathered on Hoopa Valley Tribe ancestral lands to celebrate the construction of nearly 23 miles of high-capacity middle-mile broadband infrastructure along California State Route 96. These 23 miles are part of the larger 8,000+ mile network that will serve as the backbone for homes, schools, and other locations that are currently unserved to have reliable access to the internet. The Hoopa Valley Public Utilities District and the State entered into the first-ever Tribal-State middle-mile broadband joint-build agreement. The model agreement has led to ten additional joint-build agreements with Tribal nations across California—with more on the way. Once complete, the route will deliver last-mile service to roughly 1,900 homes and 3,000 residents while adding critical resiliency to California’s open-access middle-mile broadband network.

Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) represents a fundamental shift in how we think about spectrum use. Traditionally, sensing and communications have been two separate functions. You had radar systems designed to detect and track objects, and you had communications systems designed to transmit data. They lived in different spectral lanes, were managed by different agencies, and developed along different paths. ISAC breaks that mold. In an ISAC world, sensing and communications co-exist in a single, harmonized system. The same infrastructure that supports your cell phone call or data stream might also detect a drone, track a vehicle, or monitor environmental conditions in real time. ISAC is not just a technical evolution; it is a strategic leap. It gives us a chance to fuse our economic and national security goals into a common platform. But this opportunity is only valuable if we seize it.