Broadband becomes the new electricity with infrastructure bill

The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, passed with near-unanimous support from Democrats and modest backing by Republicans, includes a landmark $65-billion commitment to expanding broadband availability across the nation. Millions of Americans will find it easier to learn new information, search for jobs, and complete schoolwork. Rural areas with limited access are poised to benefit the most, bridging a digital divide that has plagued less-populated regions throughout the 21st century. 

With this bill, the U.S. government is taking a major step toward committing to a fundamental good, putting Internet availability closer on par with the power grid, water system, and interstate highways. 

Questions and concerns abound with regard to the execution of this once-in-a-generation investment. Are state governments, due to get $42 billion through grants, prepared for managing expansion of broadband infrastructure? Will large telecom providers, which have avoided lower-profit rural areas but remain in line for piles of infrastructure cash, deliver for customers they historically ignored? How long will broadband remain a viable source of useful Internet in a rapidly changing tech environment?

Advocates also are concerned that broadband could become accessible in previously underserved areas, but it won’t be available to many lower-income customers who can’t afford it. While the infrastructure bill includes $14 billion to extend a broadband subsidy started during the pandemic, that total only amounts to a $30-per-month benefit for those in need. 

But for a moment, it’s worth putting all those worries aside and revelling in the bigger meaning of this moment. An estimated 42 million Americans, roughly 13% of the population, lack at-home broadband Internet access, according to surveys completed by the consumer advocacy group BroadbandNow. If all goes according to plan, that will dramatically change this decade.

“The pandemic revealed in all-too-stark terms what is at stake if we don’t close the digital divide,” Adrianne B. Furniss, executive director of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society advocacy foundation, wrote earlier this month. “Our choice is to allow the divide to persist, holding back individuals, families, communities, and our nation—or we can ensure everyone can use broadband fit for the changing world. In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, America chooses the latter and we will all be better for it.”

In an encouraging sign for the future, the legislative sausage-making revealed bipartisan support for investing in broadband. While Republicans gnashed their teeth throughout negotiations and largely voted against the final bill, their opposition centered on issues other than Internet-related spending. Recall that a GOP counter-proposal to Democrats’ initial plan called for exactly $65 billion in new broadband investment.

It remains to be seen whether Congress, states, municipalities and the telecom industry can deliver on the promise of this investment. But at least the government has finally made a promise of broadband to those in need.

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Jacob Carpenter

NEWSWORTHY

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Meta problems in the Buckeye State. Ohio’s attorney general announced Monday that he is suing Facebook parent Meta and seeking $100 billion in damages on behalf of investors, alleging that the company misled them by making false statements about Facebook’s impact on children, The Wall Street Journal reported. Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican running for re-election in 2022, claimed Facebook sought to boost its profits by failing to disclose information that whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked in recent weeks, sending the company’s stock tumbling. Officials for Meta said the suit is “without merit” and pledged a vigorous defense.

Game over for Fortnite in China. Fortnite officially went dark in China on Monday after its local publisher, Tencent, failed to get needed government approvals amid President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on video games, Bloomberg reported. Fortnite developer Epic Games had big dreams for China when it debuted there in 2018, but Xi’s government has not given the nod to a new video game since July. Chinese leaders announced in August that people under the age of 18 could only play three hours of video games weekly, an intervention aimed at “protecting the physical and mental health of minors.”

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

China’s loss becomes India’s gain. Investors spooked by the Chinese government’s crackdown on tech companies are increasingly shifting their money south, backing up-and-coming Indian firms in the fast-modernizing nation, the Financial Times reports. While investors have long seen China as a first option over India, the last-minute scuttling of Ant Group’s IPO and numerous other government interventions in China have shuffled portfolios around the globe. Still, some skeptics worry that India’s hot tech sector has become overvalued, with Thursday’s Paytm IPO serving as a useful barometer of the market.

From the article:

For every dollar invested in Chinese tech in the quarter that ended September, $1.50 went into India, according to the Asian Venture Capital Journal. India’s benchmark Sensex equity index is up 25% this year, the best performer among Asia’s large economies, while China’s Shanghai SE Composite index is flat over the same period. 

The Financial Times spoke to multiple investors who had diverted funds from China to India and elsewhere but declined to speak on the record due to still having holdings and clients in China. 

“It’s about thinking where you look, how you play the different markets,” says Kabir Narang, a partner at B Capital Group, an investment firm active across Asia. “I think everyone in the world over the last six to 12 months has adjusted to” the regulatory action in China, he adds.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Fortnite maker ups war of words in battle over app store payments: Google is ‘crazy’ and ‘Apple must be stopped’, by Vlad Savov, Sohee Kim and Bloomberg

In Biden-Xi meeting, China dangles a big carrot in front of U.S. business, by Clay Chandler and Grady McGregor

An NFT issued by the musician Grimes plunges in value by 84% as celebrity-minted tokens struggle in the market, by Olga Kharif, Kim Bhasin and Bloomberg

Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked for a plan to save 42 million people from hunger. The UN gave him one, by Eamon Barrett

CEOs say the pandemic spurred companies to make unlikely tech transformations, by Phil Wahba

Poor worker training and education is as much a business problem as climate change, say CEOs, by Phil Wahba

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BEFORE YOU GO

Xbox chief goes deep on 20-year anniversary. Phil Spencer, the executive vice president of gaming at Microsoft, made the interview rounds recently to commemorate the Xbox console’s debut in November 2001—and there was plenty to reminisce about. While Microsoft got a later jump than competitors Nintendo and Sony, the folks in Redmond, Wash. have been on the cutting edge of gaming at several points in the past two decades, most recently with its subscription-style Game Pass service. Xbox also has endured its fair share of embarrassments, from the “Red Ring of Death” to the disastrous Xbox One rollout. Spencer touches on it all—while also dropping news about The Elder Scrolls VI—in conversations with GQ, Axios and CNN.