American Enterprise Institute

Here’s an idea: Let states invest some of the surplus Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding to upgrade the aging digital infrastructure in our nation’s correctional facilities. As part of its primary deployment initiative, BEAD will bring broadband access to the premises of most of America’s prisons and jails.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 sought to replace monopoly protection with competition in an industry shaped by decades of regulation. While the Telecom Act removed legal barriers, many of its most detailed provisions—particularly those designed to manage entry and preserve service-based categories—failed to produce the industry structure policymakers envisioned. This paper from the American Enterprise Institute argues that these outcomes reflect a broader lesson about regulating evolving technologies.

This essay examines how the national government’s strategy three decades ago shaped the global information environment of today. This will show that humans can use the power of government to do more good than harm. They can win and deserve the trust of the people they are sworn to serve. It is also intended to explain why the lessons of the grand strategy adopted for digital communications three decades ago suggest it is time to create an Artificial Intelligence Commission.

A pivotal decision made by the Biden administration requires that broadband grants supported by the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program be reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). However, this decision lies in a murky area of the law that has since been overturned—calling into question the necessity of these reviews.

My colleague Mark Jamison recently observed that “[f]or decades, well-functioning independent regulatory agencies have been a stabilizing force.” Though primarily addressing the Federal Trade Commission following President Donald Trump’s firing of two Democratic commissioners, Jamison highlights four “core principles of stability, predictability, legitimacy, and credibility” for the FTC’s success that also could apply to another independen