We've noted repeatedly that despite a lot of breathless pearl clutching from US leaders and regulators about the "digital divide," the US doesn't actually know where broadband is (or isn't) available. Despite repeated complaints (often by FCC Commissioners themselves), the FCC just keeps doubling down on shoddy data to justify its complete and total fealty to telecom giants. The agency's latest notice of inquiry (part of its Congressional duty to report on the state of broadband once a year) even acknowledges the agency's data is bad... then proceeds to use it anyway to claim [accommodating AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast] is justifiable policy: "More Americans than ever before now have access to the benefits of broadband as the Commission’s policies have created a regulatory environment to stimulate broadband investment and deployment." Except, again, that's simply not true. Despite repeated (almost weekly) lies by the Pai FCC that gutting oversight of telecom monopolies resulted in a massive investment boom, numerous studies (not to mention earnings reports, SEC filings, and public statements by executives) have made it clear that simply never happened.

We must roll out a Digital Learning Ambassadors corps immediately, staffed by young adults in predominantly immigrant communities. Millions of young people, like my students at Rutgers University, are either completing remote coursework at home or graduated this past spring. They are looking for meaningful, paid work. As tech-savvy, native speakers of languages spoken by the K-12 students who struggled most in remote learning this spring, they are our best untapped resource for supporting better learning experiences this fall.

A Digital Learning Ambassador corps need not be expensive and has precedent in national policy. When the Federal Communications Commission released its National Broadband Plan in 2010, it proposed a Digital Literacy Corps with the same principles outlined here but with a broader mandate of serving all local residents. The intervening decade provides many models that could be rapidly adapted to train Digital Learning Ambassadors.

[Vikki Katz is an associate professor in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University]

We’ve gathered to discuss 5G security, of course, but I think it’s important to say up front that we can’t let these challenges hold back our efforts to unlock the possibilities of 5G itself. Over the past few years, the Federal Communications Commission has aggressively executed what we call our 5G FAST plan. This strategy for promoting 5G innovation and investment features three key parts: freeing up commercial spectrum, promoting the installation of wireless infrastructure, and encouraging fiber deployment.

I look forward to continuing our engagement with all of you on these issues and to advancing the Prague Principles, and now the Prague 5G Repository, around the world as part of that engagement. As so many have mentioned over the course of our discussions here, efforts to secure 5G networks do not stop at our borders. We are in this together.