Broadband order demonstrates federal agency is undermining local efforts to improve digital equity
By San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo
Silicon Valley has long suspected - after the Federal Communications Commission's assaults on net neutrality and online privacy - that the FCC doesn't get the needs of an innovation economy. The FCC's Sept.
28 order should erase all doubts - particularly for the millions of low-income families stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide.In September, the FCC capped fees that telecommunications companies pay to cities to lease public street light poles. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint mount "small cell" devices on those poles to bolster their wireless networks, accelerating data transmission and enabling next-generation 5G functionality.