Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai says he believes there will be enough companies to bid on broadband work in West Virginia at the end of Oct to bring new service to un-served areas. “I think these companies have a very strong interest in deploying very quickly and if we give them the money, we give them the tools, they will connect West Virginians as soon as they possibly can,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said. A FCC-sponsored reverse auction is scheduled to start Oct. 29 in connection with the agency’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). There’s up to $20 billion available nationally. Those bidding on projects in West Virginia could receive up to $760 million, Chairman Pai said. “That’s actually 13th most in the country. So West Virginia is punching about its weight in the money it could get in the RDOF,” Pai said.

By unanimous vote, the Henry County Commission entered into a partnership with the West Kentucky & Tennessee Telecommunications Cooperative with a goal to provide the opportunity for broadband services for every household in Henry County. “Broadband is extremely necessary for our underserved areas,” County Mayor Brent Greer said. “Within a short period of time, we’ve put a lot of things together because of the importance of this.” Mayor Greer noted the work on providing broadband to Henry County actually started 18 months ago with much the same goals as there are now. “And 18 months ago, COVID was not even an issue, but we were already working on telehealth and other aspects that are being presented today. Then COVID hit and our world changed overnight.”

The rapid pace of digital technology means companies can move rapidly to advantage themselves by exploiting consumers and eliminating potential competition. Congress has traditionally created new expert agencies to oversee new technology platforms. Whether the Interstate Commerce Commission (railroads), Federal Communications Commission (broadcasting), Federal Aviation Administration (air transport), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (finance), or any other of the alphabet agencies, the precedent is clear: new technologies require specialized oversight. In our report, “New Digital Realities; New Oversight Solutions” we conclude such regulation in the digital era warrants creation of a Digital Platform Agency to establish public interest expectations that promote fair market practices while being agile enough to deal with the rapid pace of digital technology. Such an agency should be governed by a new congressio nally established digital policy built on three pillars:

• Risk management rather than micromanagement: rigid industrial era utility-style regulation is incompatible with today’s rapid pace of technological change. Regulation should be based on risk-targeted remedies focused on market outcomes.
• Restoration of common law principles: for hundreds of years common law has required those providing services to anticipate and mitigate harmful effects (a “duty of care”), as well as  providing access to essential services (a “duty to deal”). Oversight of Big Tech need do nothing more than reinstate such expectations.
• Agile regulation: in lieu of top-down dictates, the new agency should be the forum to involve the industry in developing enforceable behavioral standards similar to fire and building codes. Such codes introduce innovation-promoting agility to the oversight process while protecting consumers and competition.

One might be excused for thinking that by now, more than 200 years after the first disputed presidential election, our forebears or ourselves would have stepped up to the issue and put in place the mechanics necessary to allow a democratic nation to hold a democratic election. Yet here we are, in one of the worst economic recessions in history and amidst a pandemic that has already cost the country two hundred thousand lives, and we still don't know how to count the votes, who should be "allowed" to vote (as if anyone's permission needs to be granted!), how to set up credible polling places, whether those standing in lines for hours in deliberately scarce polling sites should be allowed to cast ballots, what to do when those in power use the agencies of government to subvert the process, and debating whether a president who loses at the polls can nevertheless hold onto power by threat or by coup. America's election process is subverting America's democracy. The story is occasionally told in bits and pieces, but it receives nowhere near the attention it merits -- indeed, the attention it should command. There are reasons for this shortfall. One of them, and I submit the most important one, is mainstream media's failure to highlight the issue.

We have never, under any administration, had a national mission to get high-speed, affordable broadband deployed and adopted in every household and business across the land. Individual agencies work at it, but no individual agency can get this job done by itself. We have lacked a mission and a plan to connect America for a quarter of a century, while much of the rest of the world moves ahead. The private sector is not going to get this done by itself, nor can government. We need meaningful working partnerships among the private sector, federal, state, and local governments, cooperatives, and regional entities.  What is required is leadership from the top and coordination across the board. It must start with a president who presents the vision and develops the mission. Then it requires funding for this essential infrastructure that, to be effective, must be universal. It also requires realizing that this is how most of the country's earlier vital infrastructures were built -- from the roads, bridges, and canals of early days through the railroads, highways, and electrification projects of more recent years. We are today paying a disastrous and totally unnecessary price for the short-sightedness of recent years. The longer we delay, the more we will hurt.