The United States innovated most of the information and communication technologies (ICT) that over the past 40 years that are transforming an analog socio-economy into a digital one. But the nation has lagged in the transition. Much of its existing telecommunications infrastructure is designed for an analog 20th century world of voice telephone service over twisted pair copper and premium television channels over coaxial cable.
America’s slow modernization of its legacy copper telephone system to fiber reflects the prolonged transition from an analog-based socio economy to a digital one in the 21st century. Related to this is that many Americans do not utilize ICT to allow their “full participation in the society and economy of the United States” according the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021.
At the close of the 20th century, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 foresaw the digitization of the telecommunications as the mass market Internet was taking off and some regional telephone companies filed plans with state regulators to offer two way video over fiber. But because the Internet as a means of communication was new, its drafters believed market competition would bring about reliable and affordable Internet connectivity as well as Internet-enabled devices and applications and online content.
The market competition will float all boats theory failed to reflect reality relative to Internet connectivity. A quarter century after the law was enacted, millions of Americans lack reliable and affordable connectivity, creating a “digital inclusion” challenge as it is described in the IIJA. Instead, market forces led to market segmentation, leaving lots of locations unconnected. The reason is making those connections isn’t that different from other utilities. Like voice telephone service, those copper cables that delivered it every home and business voice telephone service function as a natural terminating monopoly that doesn’t operate as a competitive market due to high cost barriers to competitor entry and first mover advantage.
That fundamental flaw in the 1996 Telecom Act left the nation further behind than where it should be for deployment of robust digital infrastructure with the old analog copper twisted pair telephone connections replaced with fiber reaching most every doorstep by 2010 at the latest. Over the interim, substandard and less reliable substitutes were employed such as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) over copper and fixed and mobile wireless and satellite technology.
The IIJA while nominally an infrastructure measure that allocates federal dollars to states to build out advanced telecommunications infrastructure, like the 1996 Telecom Act, it doesn’t affirmatively specify fiber to the premises (FTTP) infrastructure. However, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), charged with administrating the federal funds to the states, states a clear preference for FTTP. In that regard, public policy is slowly advancing into the digital age.
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