The FCC Is Leaving Low-Income Americans Out of the 5G Rollout

Last month, San Jose filed a lawsuit against the Federal Communication Commission's September order on “speeding broadband deployment.” More than 20 cities have done the same, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, and the National Association of Counties, representing tens of thousands of rural and urban communities across the country, have come out against the FCC’s order. Why?

Justified as the key to speeding 5G small-cell deployment, the order provides close to a $2 billion taxpayer-funded subsidy to corporate interests, with no requirement for them to provide affordable broadband access to America’s rural and low-income communities. I wish I were surprised, but I’m not. This is the FCC that gutted the Lifeline program that provided discounted cell phones to our most vulnerable and rolled back net neutrality and privacy protections for millions of Americans.