Thread by @KarlBode

I've been spending 2022 so far talking to local tribal and community leaders about community broadband efforts, and while a lot is going wrong in this country, I've never seen more productive momentum on this subject, ever

Covid (and photos of kids huddled outside of taco bell just to attend class), combined with the infrastructure bill funding, combined with some state efforts (CA) has just caused an absolute explosion in this space.

I'm not sure telecom monopolies fully understand what's coming

Every week this year I've spent on the phone talking with different local community leaders, tribal reps, and activists and the collective, bipartisan, grass roots momentum to finally fix our shitty broadband is like nothing I've ever seen in 20 years of covering telecom

2 years of Covid home education and telecommuting frustration probably drove more public and policymaker awareness of telecom market failure, monopolization, bad broadband maps, and other problems than the last fifteen years of activism and advocacy and it's amazing

activists who say they used to struggle to get people to attend broadband policy meetings now say those meetings are packed

if you're an AT&T, Comcast, or Charter lobbyist used to dictating the entire contours of state and local telecom policy, that's bad news

things are particularly hot in California, where the state not only unveiled a $7 billion broadband initiative (including a $4 billion open access "middle mile" network), but LA county just voted to start exploring a new citywide broadband network, leaning on state and fed funds

anyway it's been heartening to shift my focus this year from endless federal corruption and dysfunction, toward spending more time talking with people on the ground building real world solutions block by block

all the interesting stuff in telecom is happening at the local level

the Trump FCC spent four years basically announcing that they're proxies for telecom monopolies and couldn't care less about consumer welfare.

so the grotesque level of federal regulatory capture is definitely contributing to this pendulum swing