We Need a New Rural-By-Design Connectivity Technology Ecosystem
With the unforgettable 2020 US Presidential election finally starting to fade in the rearview mirror, it’s time to return to discussions about what needs to be done to stimulate our ailing economy, ensure that all of us can succeed in the new normal, and better prepare us for future natural and manmade disasters. President-elect Biden has stated that getting control of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recovery are among his top four priorities. Fortunately, Congress has already been hard at work on COVID-19 relief and infrastructure legislation. In this blog, I argue that COVID-19 relief and infrastructure legislation should provide funding for the creation of a rural-by-design connectivity technology ecosystem, which would further the complementary goals of reducing the cost of extending broadband networks to unserved and unserved communities across the US, save billions of dollars in universal service subsidies over time, and increase US global competitiveness in markets where most of the world’s unconnected people reside.
One of the key lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic is the extent to which we all now rely on reliable broadband connectivity, for access to education, healthcare, working remotely, and for political participation. Over the last year, we’ve all read articles lamenting failed promises to bring affordable broadband connectivity to unserved communities around the US and around the world. According to the Federal Communications Commission, nearly one-fourth of the US population located in rural areas — 14.5 million people — lack access to fixed broadband service. According to the FCC, the situation is far worse in tribal areas, where it says that nearly one-third of the population lacks access.
Many commenters nonetheless criticize the FCC for publishing overly rosy broadband availability statistics. According to BroadbandNow, 42 million people in the US — primarily in rural areas — lack access to fixed broadband. Even in areas where broadband is available, approximately 100 million Americans still do not subscribe, with lack of affordability being the greatest barrier cited. Microsoft’s usage data shows that only about half of Americans are accessing the internet at broadband speeds.
The FCC directs about $10 billion per year in universal service subsidies to network operators to provide broadband to unserved rural communities and discount the cost of services to low-income consumers, schools and libraries, and rural healthcare providers. Even with all of these efforts, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed significant gaps in the FCC’s universal service funding programs. To help alleviate these gaps, proposed federal COVID relief legislation, The Heroes Act, would appropriate funds to close the homework gap, for emergency home connectivity, telemedicine grants, and broadband mapping. Moreover, proposed infrastructure legislation would fund large-scale broadband expansion into unserved communities. The Moving Forward Act provides $100 billion to close the broadband gap in the US.
While directing more money at closing the broadband gap is surely a good thing, one cannot help wondering if there are other steps that new Administration and Congress could take to address this challenge. In addition to spending more money now, a portion of COVID relief and infrastructure funding should be set aside to invest in technologies and approaches that could reduce costs later. I believe that billions of dollars in universal service subsidies could be saved annually if the US Government invested in the development of US-borne technologies that are rural-by-design, not simply rural as-an-afterthought.
The simple reality is that the mainstream connectivity technology ecosystems are not designed to address rural connectivity challenges. For very good commercial reasons, they instead focus on the most lucrative (largest and lowest risk) market opportunities. 3GPP technologies, like 5G, were designed to enable mobile operators to address growing demand in high-density urban areas, with use cases focused on high-capacity, short-range, and low-latency connectivity. The latest generation of Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 6 (the IEEE 802.11ax standard), similarly was designed to address urban, in-building, and in-room use cases. Rural connectivity is always an afterthought in these efforts.
Lacking the cost benefits that scale provides, equipment manufacturers and network operators looking to bring connectivity solutions to rural areas end up having to deploy higher cost proprietary technologies or retrofitting standardized technologies and business models optimized for deployments in urban and suburban environments. These higher costs undermine the business case for deploying broadband networks and offering affordable services in rural areas and increase the size of subsidy programs.
There are some efforts aimed at changing this paradigm. For example, Microsoft’s Airband Initiative and Facebook’s Telcom Infra Project are promoting alternative wireless technologies, like TV white spaces and Open RAN technologies, that could reduce the cost of deploying and operating broadband networks in unserved communities. Major satellite companies, like Starlink and Viasat, are rolling out lower latency and higher capacity connectivity.
These are worthy efforts, but more can and should be done. There are several US companies that manufacture connectivity solutions for rural areas. But, these companies lack the scale needed to close the urban-rural cost gap or to effectively compete with larger non-US vendors. The US Government could play a major role in overcoming these challenged by supporting rural-by-design connectivity technology standardization efforts, through direct investment in US companies developing rural-by-design solutions, funding large-scale rural-by-design connectivity technology test beds, and creating financial instruments to enable network operators both in the US and abroad to purchase US manufacturers’ rural-by-design connectivity solutions.
Such a rural-by-design broadband technology ecosystem also presents a tremendous opportunity to boost the US economy’s global competitiveness. As bad as the broadband gap is in the US, the US only represents 2% of the global broadband gap. Barely half of the world’s 7.8 billion population is online. A total addressable market of more than 3.5 billion people surely must be compelling enough for the US government to support investment in it.
President-elect Biden’s and Congress’s focus on COVID-19 relief and economic stimulus is an opportunity that should not be wasted. Alongside efforts to address specific connectivity needs and fund extension of broadband networks into unserved areas, COVID-19 relief and infrastructure legislation should provide funding for the creation of a rural-by-design connectivity technology ecosystem.
