As we begin what really could be “Infrastructure Week”, it is clear that the knives are sharpening around possible funding that might be coming under consideration for broadband deployment (and hopefully sustaining that broadband as well). While I do think that all technologies need to be part of the “toolkit” if we are truly committed as a country to ensuring connectivity for all Americans, I think many providers have stepped up their campaigns that set the bar too low when we’re talking about long-term government-backed investments in infrastructure. No one is talking about short-cutting or being short-sighted when it comes to investments in transportation or energy infrastructure, so why do some think it’s OK to do that when it comes to broadband? An infrastructure package is a chance to be bold and build something for a generation – not to fill potholes with patches.
I was particularly disappointed to read an industry posting recently that argued against the need for rural symmetrical fiber broadband and instead set a standard that is clearly aimed at little more than making sure fixed wireless can “play in the game” too. Does fixed wireless have a role to play in terms of closing the service gaps? Of course, but watching large national providers making this pitch so aggressively – and asking taxpayers to back their short-term network deployment plans – also clearly shows the intention of serving any of their remaining rural service territories with an inferior product instead of technology that will meet the needs of consumers not only today but well into the future. It’s all the more telling that some play loosely with discussions of broadband speeds, confusing what speeds will define unserved areas on the one hand with the very separate and distinct issue of what speeds will be required of new networks to be built in the areas that are currently unserved – those are two different questions, and conflating them does nothing other than cloud a meaningful debate over how to best address our infrastructure challenges.
I continue to think that any large infrastructure investment proposal coming out now that focuses on broadband has the unique ability to ensure that we as a country set the course right from the start. We can aim high, we can do better…right from the start.
Fiber infrastructure is central to America’s broadband future. National broadband goals – including higher performance services, real-time applications, smart communities, precision agriculture, 5G superiority and better access to healthcare and education – will NOT be achieved without a strong foundation of fiber connectivity.
If we have learned nothing from these past 12 months, we should have at least learned that connections matter, that broadband matters, that speed and capacity are important and that symmetrical speeds are the new baseline for working, learning and growing the economy – from wherever we might be. We have only started to tap the potential for what our networks can be – and need to be.
And relegating rural Americans to second class service? That is a low bar indeed.
