The US presidential election is in its final stretch. Ahead of election day on November 5, Engadget is looking at where the candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, stand on today’s most important tech issues.
Broadband access in poorer and more rural communities has been a major campaign issue since 2008. Bridging the digital divide was a key component of Barack Obama’s platform. And, while it wasn’t perfect, his administration did a lot of work to expand the country’s fiber-optic infrastructure, free up wireless spectrum, and expand access to subsidies for low-income families.
While successive administrations have promised to continue the work of bringing high-speed internet to the most underserved communities, the results have been disappointing. Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have pledged to get Americans online, but political realities will make that goal difficult.
Kamala Harris
During the Biden administration, Harris has served as a sort of unofficial broadband czar (similar to her other unofficial titles of AI czar and border czar). This means she is deeply engaged with the current administration’s policies and is expected to carry them forward. This could give her a chance to salvage some positive legacy from Biden’s current poor track record on broadband.
Under President Biden, the White House secured nearly $90 billion to close the digital divide, with $42.5 billion of that specifically for BEAD, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.
This gives states money to plan and build broadband infrastructure, whether it’s running new fiber to rural areas, installing Wi-Fi in low-income apartment complexes, or training workers for new careers in telecommunications.
Unfortunately, BEAD has been hampered by numerous delays, and very little money has actually been distributed. Virginia only received preliminary approval for access to $1.48 billion in funding in late July, while it was the first state to file a request in September 2023.
There are plenty of people to blame for BEAD’s slow and chaotic rollout, but conservatives have been able to successfully use it as a weapon against Harris.
Strict requirements around environmental impact, labor practices, and affordable access have made BEAD an easy target for Republicans, who see regulation and bureaucracy as the enemies of freedom and economic growth.
The NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration), which administers BEAD, finds itself on the defensive, claiming the program is on track. However, it’s unlikely that any projects funded by BEAD will begin until 2025 or even later.
As a result of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, BEAD is a key part of President Biden’s (and by extension Vice President Harris’) legacy.
The Harris administration’s focus will likely be on speeding up the distribution of BEAD funds and accelerating work on projects like fiberoptic and 5G infrastructure. But no dramatic policy changes are likely under his leadership.
Donald Trump
Like President Biden, Donald Trump made big promises about expanding access to broadband, especially for rural communities, but he largely failed to deliver. What’s more, Democrats managed to turn that failure into a campaign weapon against him in 2020.
Under Trump and Ajit Pai, the FCC launched the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which promised $20.4 billion to expand rural broadband. However, it was just a new name for an existing subsidy program established under Obama. The Trump administration’s efforts were far more modest than those in the Biden or Obama eras, and included initiatives like investing $1.3 billion through the Department of Agriculture’s Reconnect program.
Neither Trump nor the RNC have much to say about rural broadband or the digital divide this time around. This could signal yet another term that will again be defined by small-scale investments rather than large infrastructure programs.
While the Trump campaign has tried to distance itself from Project 2025, the document was drafted by many in Trump’s circle, including former staffers. So, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that he might adopt some of its policies, if not many.
That document focuses primarily on what could be seen as a victory for the Trump administration on the technology front: 5G. Project 2025 calls for freeing up additional spectrum for wireless broadband and streamlining the permitting process.
It calls for the FCC to adopt an aggressive strategy to free up airwaves and sell them to commercial interests. It also, unsurprisingly, calls for reducing regulations about things like environmental impact and restrictions on construction on federal land in hopes of spurring the construction of more cell sites.