For the past two decades, community-based providers – that is, thousands of upstart internet service providers – have crisscrossed America, delivering internet access services with adeptness and skill. Using a potent combination of wireless spectrum and fiber, they deliver fixed connectivity to distant rural and hard to serve urban environments. In short, they’re small innovators and entrepreneurs offering needed choice for communities that have been effectively abandoned by legacy phone and cable providers. They work with the surrounding landscape, community and populace, designing quickly deployed, cost-effective and geographically fearless hybrid networks that traverse empty distances or adroitly maneuver through dense urban environs to bring competitive, affordable internet to those in need. As Washington works to ensure all Americans have broadband, especially those in the digital divide, community-based providers play an important and growing role in meeting this goal – on their own dime, and in partnership with local, state and federal programs through taxpayer support. Their work reflects their “future proof” ethos — constant evolution, innovation and improvement to meet the needs of consumers.

[Claude Aiken is the president and CEO of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association.]

The California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) calls on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and public agencies to begin advertising and increase awareness programs to reach the nation’s neediest residents.  According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), only 1 in 12 eligible households, or 5.7 million households nationally, have enrolled in the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) as of September 19.  In a separate analysis by CETF, based on FCC enrollment data, 35 percent of 2 million eligible California households have enrolled for a total of nearly 706,000 households.  The analysis finds that nearly 1.3 million state households are eligible but have not enrolled. “It is time for ISPs and the myriad agencies and utilities that regularly interact with lower-income residents through existing social service and financial aid programs to get everyone connected immediately," said CTEF President and CEO Sunne Wright McPeak. "We are calling upon ISPs to advertise and all State Agencies, School Districts, Counties, Cities, Higher Education Financial Aid, Covered California and Power Utilities to notify low-income households and get everyone signed up.”

Despite nearly 70,000 North Carolina households and businesses conducting internet connection speed tests as part of a year-long survey, the state “still has a lot more to do” before it can begin a $1 billion broadband expansion, according to state officials. The survey, launched in July 2020 by North Carolina State University’s Friday Institute, found that at least 450,000 households, or roughly 10 percent of the state, lacks adequate broadband coverage. Ben Shelton, a project manager at the state’s Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, said the data offers a fresh perspective on the digital divide compared to what’s shown by the Federal Communications Commission, which has been criticized for letting internet service providers overstate their coverage areas. While FCC Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has acknowledged that the agency’s data is flawed, it’s currently up to states to collect their own data if they want a more accurate measure of broadband availability. With more than $1 billion in funding set aside for broadband for fiscal year 2022 — much of which will be federal stimulus funding — ensuring North Carolina has accurate coverage data is more important than ever, according to Shelton. Using the broadband survey, the state is able to get on-the-ground information from residents, filling in the gaps between the FCC and “what people on the ground are really telling us,” Shelton said.

First Tech Fund is a new nonprofit dedicated to closing the digital divide among underserved high school students in New York City. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the burgeoning digital divide among students of different economic backgrounds. In New York City, 14 percent of students didn't have a computer or computing device, and 13 percent didn't have adequate internet access, according to ​​the New York Civil Liberties Union and New York State Education (NYSE) Department. The NYSE report showed how students in Black and Latino school districts suffered disproportionately during the pandemic: Compared with students in largely white districts, they were about four times as likely to lack internet access and three times as likely to lack a device that allowed them to complete schoolwork. It's a situation First Tech Fund co-founder Josue De Paz knew well, and when the pandemic forced kids out of school and back into their homes, it was a need he was determined to help solve. The organization offers high school students a year-long fellowship in which they are supplied with a laptop and a Wi-Fi hotspot, with unlimited internet access. They're also paired with a mentor and are given weekly virtual workshops on digital skills, career growth and other professional development opportunities.

T-Mobile President and CEO Mike Sievert said his company is focused on rural areas not because that’s where it promised to build out 5G, but because “it’s the size of the prize.” Big wireless carriers tend to be pretty low-key in smaller and more rural areas because the economics don’t pencil out – they represent large geographic areas to cover and fewer people to pay for service. Yet T-Mobile made a lot of promises to get its merger with Sprint approved, and one of them was to cover rural areas with 5G. Already, T-Mobile is seeing the most rapid movements in its brand reputation in smaller markets and rural areas these days compared with more populated areas, according to Sievert. Particularly in small markets and rural areas, “we are up 52 percent from just a year ago in terms of the reputation of people saying, ‘Hey, that company is the 5G company.’ And that’s just an example of how our brand is evolving,” he said. Sievert also made a point to bring up T-Mobile’s 5G mid-band deployment compared to rivals AT&T and Verizon. For mid-band, AT&T and Verizon are mostly banking on C-band spectrum that won’t be available until late 2021, and "T-Mobile will have already deployed by the end of this year” in the 2.5 GHz band, Sievert stated.

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan laid out her strategic approach and vision in a memo to FTC staff. Khan's five principles stated the FTC needs to:

1. Take a holistic approach to identifying harms, recognizing that antitrust and consumer protection violations harm workers and independent businesses as well as consumers.

2. Orient its enforcement efforts around targeting root causes rather than looking at one-off effects.

3. Invest in a more rigorous and empiricism-driven approach to understanding market behaviors and business practices.

4. Be forward-looking in anticipating problems and taking swift action.

5. Democratize the agency by recognizing it as a public body whose work shapes the distribution of power and opportunity across the economy.

Following this strategic approach, Khan then describes the policy priorities and operational objectives of the FTC. The full memo can be found here.