Opinion: Rural America needs Congress to require data center developers and the federal government to disclose plans

Nondisclosure agreements leave community members in the dark.
(Photo by Daniel Bernard, Unsplash)

When urban and suburban Americans don't want to live near an institution or business designed to address a larger societal problem, they send it to rural America. Prisons, power plants and landfills are a few examples, writes Rotimi Adeoye in his opinion for The New York Times. "These days, two more intrusions have been added to the list: immigrant detention centers and data centers. … Congress should address this problem."

While it may seem logical to assume the federal government would be required to share information with smaller townships before purchasing large buildings or tracts of land in town, that isn't the case.

In Tremont, Pa., a tiny town with roughly 300 people, the federal government purchased "a 1.3-million-square-foot warehouse that had been a Big Lots distribution center" to repurpose into an immigration center designed to hold 7,500 detainees, Adeoye writes. By the time the township's supervisor learned of the sale, the deed had already been signed.

In other instances, small-town residents learn that a hyperscale data center is being planned in their community only when rezoning paperwork is filed. Nondisclosure agreements between data center developers, landowners and town officials enable companies to keep area residents in the dark.

In both cases, transactions are "intended to be finished long before the people who would have to live with the consequences could ask questions about what was being planned," Adeyoe adds.

To help rural Americans know and have some agency in deciding what gets built in their communities, Adeyoe suggests that Congress "require companies planning large-scale facilities to publicly disclose who they are and what they intend to build before they seek to change how the land is used, and to notify local governments before acquiring property in their communities. … The same principle applies to federal agencies."

Requiring public disclosure does not mean that a detention or data center facility won't eventually be constructed in a rural community, but it "would stop it from being built in secret," Adeyoe adds. "Rural communities are often fighting both kinds of facilities simultaneously, often without knowing who they are fighting or why, because neither the federal government nor private developers are currently required to tell them anything before the decisions are made."

A small town in Wisconsin pushes out a planned data center project

Organizers participated in a day of action in Menomonie
 in December. (Photo by K. Gregerson via Next City)

Three thousand years ago, it was David the shepherd boy vs. Goliath the Philistine giant. A 21st-century version of the proverbial battle goes something like this: Menomonie, Wisconsin. pop. 16,843 vs. Balloonist, LLC and its undisclosed tech-giant backer. Spoiler: Menomonie wins.

When Menomonie residents discovered their city council had already entered into closed-door talks with Balloonist last July, they had to hustle to get organized. Marianne Dhenin of Next City reports, "It was only weeks before the city council voted to annex and rezone the land to move the project forward. Organizers were fighting an uphill battle."

In the course of their fight to keep the $1.6 billion data center from spreading across 320 acres of farmland near the edge of town, Menomonie residents tapped into "grassroots community organizing and support from a growing statewide coalition," Dhenin writes. As they learned how to push Balloonist out of their town, residents created a toolkit for other small towns facing unwanted hyperscale data center proposals.

Menomonie residents who opposed the project "took to social media and the streets to raise the alarm about the data center proposal and organize community members," Dhenin explains. "They met to share information, staged demonstrations, and began attending city council meetings in growing numbers. . . . By September 2025, there were over 10,000 Menomonie residents and allies in a Stop the Menomonie Data Center Facebook group."

The town's resistance was so intense that Mayor Randy Knaack "announced at a Sept. 22 city council meeting that he had notified Balloonist that the city would not be moving forward with a development agreement," Dhenin reports. In January, the Menomonie City Council "voted unanimously to place additional regulations on data center projects."

A 'hyperscale' data center proposal divides a small town, but few details are known about the project

Residents pack a November meeting of the Bessemer City Council.
(Photo by Lee Hedgepeth, Inside Climate News)

A sprawling data center plan in Bessemer, Alabama, has divided the small town of 25,000 people, who know very few details about the project. 

Despite the lack of public knowledge about the build, the Bessemer City Council approved "rezoning hundreds of acres of forested land at the city’s edge to make way for a 4.5 million square foot data center," reports Lee Hedgepeth of Inside Climate News. Council members, some of whom signed nondisclosure agreements, voted 5-2 to allow the $14.5 billion project to move forward.

Two Bessemer City Council members, Cleo King and Donna Thigpen, "voted against the proposal, called 'Project Marvel,' which has been nearly universally opposed by the residents who live near the site," Hedgepeth writes.

King told Hedgepeth that he didn't think the Bessemer City residents stand to benefit anything from having "a data center [that will] include 18 buildings the size of Walmart Supercenters and consume a massive amount of water and electricity" move into their community.

Bessemer residents, both for and against the project, have attended city council meetings, with those opposing the build complaining that they receive only vague responses to their questions. Residents supporting the project say opponents are "anti-growth."

King said "even as a council member, he has not seen any additional planning documents answering the questions raised by residents and environmental groups," Hedgepeth writes.

"Several representatives of the local school system have testified in favor of the data center proposal," Hedgepeth reports. The developer behind the project reassured council members that Project Marvel will be a "financial boon for Bessemer and will cause no negative impacts for either residents or the environment."

It's hard for Bessemer residents on both sides to get the full measure of the proposal. Ryan Anderson, a staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, an environmental nonprofit, said that "she was shocked by how little is still publicly known about the project after months of public hearings," Hedgepeth reports. She told him, "You can’t answer the most basic questions about what company is building a data center here."

Despite progress toward universal affordable, high-speed broadband, the rules change again

Photo by S. Dhage

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on June 6 announced changes to the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. Stakeholders have "expressed both outrage and optimism as states search for answers on a path forward," reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty.

Teale writes that the NTIA says its changes aim to "remove regulatory burdens, lower costs and make it technologically neutral."

The government "gave states 90 days to comply," Teale writes. "During that time, they will also have to conduct what NTIA called an additional 'Benefit of the Bargain Round' of subgrantee selection that it said would permit all applicants to compete on a level playing field." 

The latest reforms for the $42.5 billion program work to shift its focus away from restricting state options. "NTIA said it would adopt a 'tech-neutral approach to BEAD, having previously expressed a preference for fiber," Teale explains. "Rules around workforce development, climate and environmental impacts have also been rescinded, as has the approval for Delaware, Louisiana and Nevada’s final plans."

Among the trio of states that already had fully approved plans, Delaware's state broadband office reported it was "reviewing" the new guidance, while Nevada's U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen said "she would block the nominations of any Commerce Department appointees that oversee or deal with broadband until the state gets its funding," Teale reports. Louisiana's broadband offices have yet to respond. Several states are taking Delaware's lead and say they are in the process of reform review.

Sen. Jacky Rosen

While some politicians and the Internet & Television Association have hailed the changes as a better path forward, "many outside groups have criticized the new BEAD rules," Teale reports. "Jessica Dine, a policy analyst at New America’s Open Technology Institute, said in a statement the new guidance from NTIA 'creates a confusing, last-minute mess of changes. By forcing a rebidding process on an incredibly short timeline, the new policy notice is, in effect, undoing all of the states’ work on their bidding processes so far.'"

The statement by Nevada's Rosen was by far the most outspoken. She said, "I’m beyond outraged that the Trump Administration has moved the goal post yet again. This decision will put Nevada’s broadband funding in jeopardy, and it’s a slap in the face to rural communities that need access to high-speed internet.”

Green 'hackers' rescue, repost environmental research data tools for public use

A screenshot of a rescued EPA data mapping tool.  
(PEDA website image via SEJ Toolbox)

Green geeks deploy their techy-search-and-rescue powers to help environmental science research get back online.

"As environmental data goes missing, these are times when hackers can be heroes to journalists. Meet Public Environmental Data Partners," writes Joseph A. Davis of SEJ Toolbox. "It’s a loose coalition of programmers and developers who are reversing the Trump administration’s removal of politically inconvenient data from the internet. . . . Once the data is rescued, they put it into usable form — searchable, visible, map-formatted and downloadable."

Where did the data come from? The content was originally on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website, but a few months ago, it disappeared. That helpful EJScreen data tool? Gone. "Well, gone from the website of the but not from the web," Davis adds. "A group called the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, better known as EDGI, preserved the data before it vanished, and Public Environmental Data Partners set up the interface for using it. Toolbox applauds."

Public Environmental Data Partners has worked on several data rescue missions. Their growing list is here. Davis writes, "The list includes lots of Energy Department data: the Energy Justice Dashboard, the Wind Energy Community Benefits Database, etc. It includes pipeline data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. . . . And more. Not all are gone yet and not all are back online yet, but they are working on it."

Groups contributing to the Public Environmental Data Partners include:
The CAFE Research Coordinating Center at Harvard and Boston University
The Catalyst Cooperative
Earth Hacks
The End of Term Web Archive
Environmental Policy Innovation Center
Fulton Ring
Internet Archive (Wayback Machine)
Open Environmental Data Project
Rooted Futures Lab

"A lot of things containing the word climate are disappearing," Davis writes. "But they do not sleep silently with the fishes. Data wants to be free."

Quick hits: Wallet-draining breakfast prices; the 'Walmart effect;' rural short story winner; bird flu stats; shouses

Photo by E. Aceron, Unsplash

Budget-busting beef with eggs and coffee breakfasts won't be cheaper anytime soon. "While commodities such as beef and eggs have long been volatile, others such as coffee have jumped in price more recently," report Patrick Thomas, David Uberti and Elizaveta Galkina of The Wall Street Journal. "Average prices for food at home rose in November by the largest annual pace in a year. . . . Store-bought ground [coffee] roasts have jumped 11% in price over the past year to an all-time high." In slightly less of a buzzkill, pork prices have remained steady, and "the average price of white bread is down around 3% over the past year."

Walmart's motto is "save money, live better," but oftentimes, that's not what happens to places after Walmart moves in. "New research suggests that the company makes the communities it operates in poorer — even taking into account its famous low prices," reports Rogé Karma for The Atlantic. "Walmart’s many defenders argue that the company is a boon to poor and middle-class families, who save thousands of dollars every year shopping there. . . .Two new research papers challenge that view." Read the research here.

Haworth's character, Michael, decides to venture home.
(Photo by Julian Scholl, Unsplash)

When one season of life ends, another begins -- or does it? Jeremy Haworth's short story "Blood Brother" explores Michael Riordan's path from retirement boredom to the uncertainty of going home. Haworth writes, "The sudden thought of home occurred to him. . . . Years had elapsed since he had crossed the threshold of the old farmstead. But the twinge in his chest told him time was shortening. The thought of death. . . an instinct to finally lay the ghosts of the past to rest. . ." Hadworth's story is the winner of the second annual “Best in Rural Writing Contest” presented by the rural literary journal The Milk House with support from The Daily Yonder.

The spread of bird flu or H5N1 in dairy cows has put many dairy farmers and consumers on edge. To help measure and mitigate the virus in cow herds, the Department of Agriculture rolled out mandated milk testing in December. The USDA is sharing its testing results with up-to-date graphics of confirmed bird flu cases, also called HPAI, found in U.S. herds. Over the past 30 days, testing found 182 new cases in two states. See the details here.

Shouses don't have to be small. This shouse is located in Okeana, a small unincorporated
community in rural Ohio. (Morton Buildings photo)

Rural landscapes have made room for country-living architecture that goes beyond barn-shaped homes and wood cabins. "Barndominiums" and "shouses" are dotting the countryside in surprising numbers. "Look carefully the next time you’re driving on the back roads of America, and you’re bound to spot a shouse — a hulking rectangular structure. . . . It could easily be mistaken for a machine shed," reports Dionne Searcey of The New York Times. "From the outside, shouses look a lot like the better-known barndominiums, or barndos for short. . . . It’s difficult to trace the genesis of shouses. . ."

'Fancy mechanic' Brienna Hall works for a company few have heard of doing work vital to maintaining all the tech in our lives. "The piece of equipment that the entire world has come to rely on — and Hall is specially trained to handle — is called an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine," reports Ben Cohen of The Wall Street Journal. "It’s the machine that produces the most advanced microchips on the planet . . . maybe the most remarkable thing about these invaluable machines is that they’re all made by the same company: ASML. . . . This one Dutch company is responsible for all of the EUV lithography systems that help make the chips in so many of your devices. Like your phone. And your computer. And your tablet. And your TV. Maybe even your car, too."

This small town's residents battled over a giant data center campus. It's a drama happening across rural America.

Giant tech companies often seek out data-center land in
rural towns. The sites feed the AI industry.

When big tech companies look for cheap land and energy to house and feed giant data campuses, they often shop in rural America. In the small town of Peculiar, Missouri, many residents worked to reject a data center proposal by developer Diode Ventures, which represented a secret corporate tech giant.

Their refusal to allow the land planned for the data site to be rezoned pitted residents against each other and their town officials, reports Eli Tan of The New York Times. "Residents described a web of distrust filled with nondisclosure agreements, hurt feelings and a mysterious entity vying to become the town’s new neighbor."

Executives from Diode Ventures plied residents and town officials with promises of an economic "boon," but some folk weren't sure. Becky Wiseman, whose property would border the Peculiar site, and her neighbors "decided to visit data center campuses for Meta and Google in Nebraska and Iowa, which were also 'hyperscale' like the one proposed in Peculiar," Tan writes. "When they arrived, they were terrified at what they saw and heard — the constant hum of generators behind guard towers."

With that, the stage for a David and Goliath battle between concerned residents and Diode supporters was set. "Signs that read 'No Data Centers' sprouted up in yards and windows across town," Tan reports. "So many people started showing up at planning and zoning meetings that Peculiar officials had to move them from City Hall to the Lions Club, a larger venue a mile down the road."

Diode executives were caught off-guard by some of the town's intense resistance. "Behind the scenes, Diode had been working with Peculiar’s mayor, Doug Stark, and city administrator, Mickey Ary," Tan explains. "Over virtual meetings and lunches at City Hall with Stark and Ary, Diode executives laid out a plan to win over Peculiar’s hearts and minds."

Proposal debates and bickering raged on in Peculiar until the aldermen voted this past September. "By unanimous decision, the data center zoning was rejected. It is unclear where Diode will take its project," Tan reports. But Peculiar's conflict isn't unique. The same saga is "playing out in small towns across the country as tech giants look to build hundreds of new data centers — often lured by tax abatements — to house the thousands of computers that would power the booming and energy-intensive artificial intelligence industry."

Outdated 911 systems mean dispatchers sometimes misdirect help. Two technologies could provide solutions.

Outdated technology limits dispatchers' effectiveness.
(FirstNet photo)

In an emergency, most people call 911 and expect a dispatcher to answer the call and send help to the correct place. But U.S. emergency centers are facing their own crisis and not every dispatch is getting sent to the right place, reports Chris Teale of Route Fifty. "With outdated technology that is prone to outages, as well as low staffing and maps that may not be up to date with the newest streets," emergency responders are sometimes misdirected. Many 911 services still rely on 1980s technology, with many rural communities lagging behind their urban counterparts.

The situation sounds dire, but "experts say there’s a possible solution to these problems," Teale explains. "The interplay of two technologies —FirstNet and Next Generation 911 — could help bolster 911 dispatching and bring it up to date. . . . But it will take time, money and political support to make it a reality -- even though there is broad agreement on the issues dispatchers face."

FirstNet "gives public safety agencies their own interoperable broadband network in partnership with AT&T," Teale explains. "It covers more than 2.97 million square miles across every state and territory, and was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks highlighted shortcomings in emergency response communications networks." FirstNet technology could benefit rural America where its high-power towers and satellites can reach more remote places faster and more accurately.

From better location services to the ability to receive scene photos or texts from callers, Next Generation 911-technology helps dispatchers and emergency responders locate and manage a crisis more effectively. FirstNet's dedicated connections work in tandem with Next Generation's features. But the systems can be cost-prohibitive for communities. Teale adds, "Some have urged the federal government to step in and bear some of that cost."

More rural states pose challenges for 'broadband for all' installations. Kentucky and West Virginia offer examples.

Spann drove thousands of miles getting 'the lay of the land.'
(Photo by Andie Corbin, Marketplace via LPR)

As the United States works to install broadband for everyone, challenges in states such as Kentucky and West Virginia are particularly tough as build-out contractors juggle reaching high percentages of rural residents and rugged topography. "The state of Kentucky was allotted $1.1 billion to get every home hooked up to high-speed internet," report Kai Ryssdal and Sarah Leeson of Marketplace. West Virginia was allotted 1.2 billion to connect its residents.

Parts of Kentucky and West Virginia are nestled in or flanked by the Appalachian Mountains, which makes for "an interesting case for broadband rollout," Ryssdal and Leeson explain. "With the Appalachian Mountains and forested hills, as well as large rural populations [to reach]. . . . About 20% of Americans live in rural areas, but in Kentucky, the proportion is double" and in West Virginia, 49.7% of the state's total population is estimated to live in a rural area.

Chip Spann is the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's program officer handling broadband] money for Kentucky and West Virginia. "A large part of Spann's role in the challenge process is getting the lay of the land," according to Ryssdal and Leeson. "Spann recounted that he's driven more than 10,000 miles around the two states. . . . In rural areas, laying fiber-optic cables might be around $50,000 per mile, according to Spann. The economics are further complicated in areas with large Amish and Mennonite populations because internet service providers (ISPs) aren't going to find paying customers in those households."

Spann said, "When you're an internet service provider, one of the things that you're trying to account for is, for every mile of infrastructure that I have, I'm hoping that I at least pass a minimum 10 households or more." Ryssdal and Leeson add, "If an ISP doesn't find that level of housing density in an area, it might not be able to generate a return on investment for a costly fiber deployment."

To find out more about how broadband financing and deployment gets done, click here.

The Affordable Connectivity Program helped millions of rural and tribal Americans gain Internet access -- now what?

ACP helped rural and tribal resident bridge the
digital divide. (Adobe Stock photo)

During the pandemic years, rural and tribal communities learned to rely on affordable internet services provided in part by the federal Affordable Connectivity Program. The more dependable and budget-friendly connection helped residents use the web for telehealth appointments, online ordering and remote learning, reports Sarah Jane Tribble of KFF Health News. In May, the ACP ran out of money, and many residents are considering what they may have to sacrifice to keep reliable internet service without the subsidy.

Although the ACP eventually enrolled around 23 million low-income households -- or one in six American families -- its funding was not renewed. "Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) challenged an effort to continue funding the program, saying during a commerce committee hearing that the program needed to be revamped," Tribble writes. Thune claimed that ACP did not reach those that "truly needed it."

Despite a hive of legislative workers trying to iron out the program's shortcomings, funding for ACP ended; however, the Biden administration "announced that more than a dozen companies — including AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast — would offer low-cost plans to ACP enrollees," Tribble reports. "The administration said those plans could affect as many as 10 million households."

Without the ACP, many rural families may be unable to bridge the digital divide. "According to a survey of participants released by the Federal Communications Commission, more than two-thirds of households had inconsistent or no internet connection before enrolling in the program," Tribble explains. "The FCC said that ending the program will affect about 3.4 million rural and more than 300,000 households in tribal areas."

FCC tug-of-war over 'net neutrality' is back; having only 'one game in town' is harder on rural areas

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel commenting on internet services.
(Photo by Matt McClain, The Washington Post)

After a six-year stalemate, the swinging vine of net neutrality is back as the Federal Communications Commission looks to improve internet provider services for consumers. "The push comes amid widespread grievance with internet service providers — a reflection, some regulators say, of monopoly power wielded by a short list of providers," reports Eva Dou of The Washington Post. In rural areas, the pain of only one internet company is deep because customers can complain about service or connection but have nowhere else to go, and their providers can afford to ignore their historically low customer service ratings.

The debate over internet providers is underscored in its history. In 2014, when the FCC "asked the public to comment on how to regulate internet providers, such as Comcast and Verizon, it received more than a million responses. Aggrieved customers crashed the commission's website," Dou writes. In 2015, the FCC moved to take control with "the landmark 2015 decision — known as 'net neutrality' — to regulate internet service as a public utility, akin to water or electricity. . . . [It gave] the FCC broad oversight over internet service providers, including ensuring they did not discriminate or charge unreasonable rates." In 2017, the Trump administration repealed the rule.

Now, the FCC is set "to reinstate net neutrality as the law of the land. The agency argues that restoring the rule will improve consumers' experience with internet providers — including by enabling it to better track broadband service outages and network reliability," Dou reports. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a speech Tuesday that due to high costs of entry into the market, there is often only one high-speed broadband provider in some parts of the country. 'That provider might be the only game in town,' she said. 'You need a referee on the field looking out for the public interest.'"

The reinstatement process will take months. "If the FCC gives the green light at its Oct. 19 monthly meeting, the agency will embark on a new rulemaking process with public comment," Dou adds. Tim Wu, a Columbia University Law School antitrust expert "who coined the phrase' net neutrality' in the early 2000s, said one new consideration this time around is the rise of 'Big Tech' — a term 'that didn't exist 20 years ago.'. . . While the early debate had been just about the power of internet providers, the makers of internet applications such as Google and Amazon are now vastly powerful, making it important that internet providers don't tip the scales toward one of them unfairly." Wu told Dou: "Among other things, [internet service providers'] neutrality is important to prevent making Google and Amazon unassailable."

As many rural schools adopt virtual teaching options, the teachers can be thousands of miles from classrooms

In rural places, filling teacher vacancies can be impossible.
(Photo by Ash Ponders, The Wall Street Journal)

School is back in session, and in some places, students and teachers are thousands of miles apart as virtual learning becomes more common, particularly in rural areas, reports Sara Randazzo of The Wall Street Journal. "Virtual teachers are beaming into thousands of classrooms this school year in states from Nevada to Alaska to New Jersey, in subjects such as world languages, special education, science and math. . . . In rural places, the challenges of filling vacancies are felt even more acutely. The pay is lower than in urban districts, affordable housing options are limited, and recent college graduates might not want to move to a more remote, unfamiliar location."

"Even with students back in classrooms post-pandemic, more rural districts are making the concept of the remote teacher permanent," Randazzo writes. In Prescott Valley, Arizona, Humboldt Unified School District opted to pay virtual teachers to fill instruction gaps. Melissa Sanford, a Humbolt/Bradshaw Mountain High School's administrative secretary, said, "Bradshaw this year is offering Spanish 1, Spanish 2 and American Sign Language through a $142,000 contract with Elevate K-12, a Chicago-based company that provides the technology and instructors for remotely taught, live classes."

Not everyone agrees that virtual teaching should be the norm instead of the last resort. "The idea of continuing to rely on a virtual teacher is unwelcome, conjuring up images of unruly classrooms and little instruction being absorbed," Randazzo writes. "Bradshaw parent Jeromy Rye was surprised to learn after the school year started about the virtual teacher in his daughter Emma’s Spanish class. Even knowing there is a classroom coach in the room to assist, he is skeptical." He told Randazzo: “It may open up opportunities for people to misbehave, for one, or to not get the quality instruction compared with having a teacher in the classroom. I need to see the proof that it’s working.”

Virtual teaching may offer some rural schools the best path toward more equal education. "In Alabama, Birmingham-based nonprofit Ed Farm is teaming with the architecture firm of Danish Kurani to create what they call the Connected Rural Classroom, a high-tech room designed to virtually beam in STEM teachers to some of Alabama’s poorest regions," Randazzo reports. "Waymond Jackson, president of Ed Farm, said he is motivated by data from the University of Alabama’s Education Policy Center showing 11% of students are proficient in math in Alabama’s historically agricultural region, known as the Black Belt, compared with 23% elsewhere in the state."

911 began when 'every household had a landline;' times have changed, but many emergency call centers haven't

911 service began in some places in 1968.
(Photo by Marissa Lewis, Unsplash)

Think everyone has switched to cellular? Think again. "Some 911 centers are still struggling to modernize their communications infrastructure—the result of funding scarcity and hesitation over the high stakes of making changes," reports Isabelle Bousquette of The Wall Street Journal. "But the continued use of legacy systems, installed when pay phones dotted city corners and every household had a landline, has led to a host of challenges for call-center operators, including misrouted calls, potentially increasing response times. U.S. regulators have estimated that as many as 10,000 lives could be saved every year by reducing 911 response times by just one minute."

The U.S. has roughly 5,700 primary and secondary public-safety answering points that respond to 911 calls, and most are "locally funded and operated, and have each taken their own path toward modernization. Overall progress has been slow," Bousquette writes. Patrick Lustig, an Oregon Department of Emergency Management member, told her: "We're using 35-year-old technology today to deliver 911 calls. Everything else has changed except the 911 system."

In 2004, the National Emergency Number Association, a nonprofit group, "came up with the vision for a 'Next Generation 911' center, which could fully take advantage of modern capabilities," Bousquette reports. NENA's goal is to move away from the old systems that "only supports voice communication to an internet-based network, capable of receiving various types of digital data, including more accurate caller location information. . . .By the end of 2022, deployments of Next Generation 911 technology covered about 56.2% of the U.S. population, according to consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. . . . For the remaining 43.8% of the population, it could be several more years. . . . Meanwhile, theyare left to contend with the limitations of their decades-old systems."

The two systems do not work well together because landlines are tied to unique geographic addresses, and cell-phone locations link to towers, resulting in emergency callers waiting to be transferred. "NENA estimates 27 million calls on legacy systems are misrouted annually, wasting precious time as the operator then has to transfer the caller to the appropriate center. . . . according to Lynne Houserman, a vice president at Motorola Solutions, a provider of services to 911 centers," Bousquette explains. "The call is then routed to a 911 center based on a decades-old database linking cell sites with call center locations. . . . But cell site boundaries are imprecise and sometimes fall within multiple 911 centers jurisdictions—meaning calls aren’t always routed to the nearest one, she said."

Inaccurate call routing isn't the only limitation. "About 40% to 45% of the country’s 911 centers still can’t accept texts, according to NENA, which described texting as critical in sensitive situations, including domestic violence incidents, as well as for the hearing-impaired," Bousquette reports. "With a Next Generation 911 network, texting is automatically enabled, Houserman said, although there are also some interim ways to make it work without the full network."

Because 911 is not a national service, funding remains the main obstacle to change. Aleisha Rucker-Wright, deputy executive director of the Georgia Emergency Communications Authority, "said the state’s ECA has been working to educate policymakers and stakeholders on Next Generation 911. She tells them things like: 'If you call and you order delivery, or you call for an Uber, they know exactly where to come to find you. … Our current 911 system, unfortunately, is not able to find you.'"

Many rural communities need more than a fast download connection; they need more upload speed, study finds

Purdue University graph of internet connection speeds along a 10-step urban-rural continuum 

As the country gears for massive federal and state investment in broadband infrastructure, Americans need to understand that closing the rural-urban digital divide is no longer the "Yes, I have a connection" or "No, I got zip" conversation of the early 2000s, Roberto Gallardo, an associate professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, writes for The Daily Yonder. Instead, it needs to be an in-depth look and planning to add what kind of broadband is lacking; often in rural places, internet upload speeds are critical, Gallardo writes.

"Before the pandemic, most internet users consumed or downloaded. However, increasingly due to e-learning, remote work, and running online micro businesses, users are producing or uploading more," Gallardo writes. "Increasingly the question is becoming: Who is using the internet at faster speeds? Are connections symmetrical—where download and upload speeds are similar? Or are most internet users driving down a six-lane paved road (faster download speeds) and driving back on a dirt road (slower upload speeds)?"

Gallardo reports on a recent study he led: "As the share of a [census] tract's population is more rural, the average download and upload speeds are slower." In purely urban tracts, the average download speed was 202 megabytes; in tracts where the share of rural population was at least 85.3%, it was 119 Mbps. The "same trend is seen with average upload speeds, where in the most urban tracts the average speed was 64 Mbps compared to 39 Mbps in the most rural tracts." Pointing to a bar graph in the study report, Gallardo notes "that average download and upload speeds seem to not change much until the share of rural population reaches close to one-third or 31.6%. On the other hand, the download/upload asymmetry does not change regardless of if the share of the population is urban or rural. Average download speeds were 3x faster for both the most urban and the most rural tracts."

Gallardo's team used "speed test results from the Speedtest by Ookla Global Fixed. Network Performance Maps and the latest American Community Survey 2017-2021 from the Census Bureau, averaged by the number of speed tests for 2021 to match the most recent release of ACS data." Speed tests were for fixed broadband networks, not cellular or mobile, and for tracts with at least 50 speed tests. The results included 83,107 tracts, "or 98% of all tracts available," he writes.

News-media roundup: Canada passes tech-news bill; fact-checking levels off; young people forsake news websites . . .

The Parliament of Canada has passed a bill to "require Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms," The Associated Press reports. The Senate approved Bill C-18 "amid a standoff between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government and Silicon Valley tech giants," AP reports. "Meta confirmed Thursday that it plans to comply with the bill by ending news availability on Facebook and Instagram for its Canadian users, as it had previously suggested. Meta would not offer details about the timeline for that move, but said it will pull local news from its site before the Online News Act takes effect," six months after it is signed by the governor-general, Canada's head of state.

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"Fact-checking’s growth seems to have leveled off," reports the Duke Reporters' Lab.  Mark Stencel, Erica Ryan and Joel Luther counted 417 fact-checking news outlets around the world, down from a peak of 424 in 2022.

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Young people are abandoning news websites in favor of social media and Tik Tok, reports Nic Newman of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. The institute's report has "evidence that users of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat tend to pay more attention to celebrities and social media influencers than they do to journalists or media companies when it comes to news topics," Newman writes.

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The Augusta Press, an online news outlet, has won the 2023 Freedom of Information Award from the Georgia Press Association for pressing its case against the Richmond County sheriff, who won't communicate with it because he dislikes its opinion writer.

Gannett sues Google, in case similar to those filed by some states and Justice Department, seeking ad-tech breakup

Gannett Co. has sued Google in a New York federal court, alleging “monopolization of advertising technology markets and deceptive commercial practices.” A bipartisan group of 17 state attorneys generals filed a similar suit against Google for monopolization of advertising technologies in December 2020, and the Justice Department and 17 additional states, filed a similar lawsuit this year, Robin Blinder reports for Editor & Publisher: "Last week, the European Union’s competition authority filed an ad-tech lawsuit against Google, citing similar circumstances" and seeking to break up the company's ad-tech business.

Why did the nation's largest publisher file its own suit? Reed told Blinder, “We just felt like we had the right size, we had the right legal counsel, and we felt like we didn't want to wait.” The vice presaident of Google Ads, Dan Taylor, told E&P, “These claims are simply wrong. Publishers have many options to choose from when it comes to using advertising technology to monetize — in fact, Gannett uses dozens of competing ad services.”

"Not everyone is bullish on Gannett’s approach," Blinder reports. Jeff Jarvis, director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York, told E&P, “It is tragic that once-great Gannett is resorting to protectionism and retribution against its competitors rather than have a strategy for innovation and growth in a changed marketplace. There are legitimate questions to be addressed regarding Google's power in both sides of the advertising market and authorities in both Europe and the U.S. are investigating them. But for Gannett to blame Google's alleged monopoly for its present troubles is just sad.”

Reed told E&P, “I see a robust future for journalism, for local news, regional news, national news. Consumers still engage with news every single day. We have 150 million ‘uniques’ to our news platform here in the U.S. every month. So, there’s engagement. Consumers want news. We spend all the money creating the news, and Google makes all the money on the advertising side on the back of our news. . . . We do need to get these things corrected through fair playing fields and fair compensation, and I think we will. And when we do, I think local, regional and national news will thrive, and you’ll see the number of journalists in this country going up versus going down.”

Ransomware isn't going away; it's a local and global threat that demands ongoing vigilance, especially in rural areas

Image by Markus Spiske, Unsplash

It's a global problem, and rural areas are more vulnerable. It's not Covid-19, it's ransomware. "What was once an easily squashed nuisance is now seen as a persistent threat," reports Mike Allen of Axios. "Ransomware attacks, which take an organization's data hostage and shut down its systems until the hackers receive payment, have exacted an escalating price on law enforcement, policymaking and financial resources around the world."

What does a rural ransomware attack look like? "Westmoreland, Kansas, is the seat of Pottawatomie County and home to around 750 of its 25,000 residents. . . . [In 2021] data was stolen from Pottawatomie County’s computers by cybercriminals who paralyzed its systems with ransomware and left some services inaccessible to residents for weeks," reports Andrea Peterson of The Record, a cyber news source. "The infiltration and the County’s reaction highlights the complicated economic, financial, and social factors at play when local government systems are compromised. . . .The attackers originally demanded $1 million, but settled for $71,250 after 'a successful negotiation' highlighting the County’s limited financial means."

Along broader lines, last week, cybersecurity professionals gathered to discuss ongoing global challenges. "Rob Joyce, the National Security Agency's director of cybersecurity, told reporters that Russian hackers are now weaponizing ransomware in attempted attacks against Ukrainian logistics supply chain companies, as well as organizations in Western-allied countries," Allen adds. "Cybersecurity firm Sophos said in a report released Tuesday that 68% of cyberattacks last year involved ransomware. . . . A panel on the last day of the gathering acted out what the federal response to a hypothetical, Iran-backed ransomware attack on U.S. banks in 2025 might look like."

Fighting ransomware attacks is taking a consistent, long-term approach. "Many ransomware operators are based in Russia, where the Kremlin tends to turn a blind eye to cyber criminals targeting Western countries. . . . Organizations still struggle with basic cyber hygiene to protect themselves," Allen reports. "Government sanctions, internet server takedowns and criminal arrests have slowly but steadily reduced businesses' willingness to pay ransomware gangs, Tom Hofmann, chief intelligence officer at Flashpoint, said. . . . The number of ransomware attacks dropped 15% between 2021 and 2022, according to recent data from Google-owned threat intelligence firm Mandiant. But that came after they skyrocketed the year before."

Microsoft quietly moves on right to repair in its home state; bill didn't pass but suggests a shift in the issue landscape

So far, New York and Colorado have passed solid legislation to support the right to repair equipment. Now, tech giant Microsoft has moved toward a middle ground that could make a lot of difference in future legislation, reports Maddie Stone of Grist.

"In March, Irene Plenefisch, a senior director of government affairs at Microsoft, sent an email to the eight members of the Washington state Senate's Environment, Energy, and Technology Committee, which was about to hold a hearing to discuss a bill intended to facilitate the repair of consumer electronics," Stone writes. "Typically, when consumer-tech companies reach out to lawmakers concerning right-to-repair bills — which seek to make it easier for people to fix their devices, thus saving money and reducing electronic waste — it's because they want them killed. Plenefisch, however, wanted the committee to know that Microsoft, which is headquartered in Redmond, Wash., was on board with this one, which had already passed the Washington House. . . . Plenefisch wrote to the committee. 'This bill fairly balances the interests of manufacturers, customers, and independent repair shops and in doing so will provide more options for consumer device repair.'"

Nathan Proctor, who heads the U.S. Public Research Interest Group's right-to-repair campaign, told Stone, "We are in the middle of more conversations with manufacturers being way more cooperative than before. And I think Microsoft's leadership and willingness to be first created that opportunity." Stone reports, "Like other consumer tech giants, Microsoft has historically fought right-to-repair bills while restricting access and repair documentation to its network of 'authorized' repair partners. But in recent years the company has started changing. . . . In 2021, following pressure from shareholders, Microsoft agreed to take steps to facilitate the repair of its devices — a first for a U.S. company. . . . Microsoft followed through on the agreement by expanding access to spare parts and service tools, including through a partnership with the repair guide site iFixit."

Stone writes, "Microsoft's engagement appears to have shifted the tone . . . . other manufacturers became aware that the company was sitting down with lawmakers and repair advocates, 'they realized they couldn't just ignore us,' Proctor said. His organization has since held meetings about proposed right-to-repair legislation in Minnesota with the Consumer Technology Association and TechNet, two large trade associations that frequently lobby against right-to-repair bills and rarely sit down with advocates. . . . 'A lot of conversations have been quite productive' around a Minnesota right-to-repair bill, Proctor said."

Despite Microsoft's quiet support, the bill did not pass. "Senator Drew MacEwen, one of the Republicans on the Energy, Environment, and Technology Committee who opposed the bill, said that Microsoft called his office to tell him the company supported the Fair Repair Act," Stone reports. MacEwen told her, "I asked why after years of opposition, and they said it was based on customer feedback." Stone adds, "But that wasn't enough to convince MacEwen. He said, "Ultimately, I do believe there is a compromise path that can be reached but will take a lot more work."

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Mia Gregerson, "wonders if Microsoft could have had a greater impact by testifying publicly in support of the bill," Stone writes. "While Gregerson credits the company with helping right-to-repair get further than ever in her state this year, Microsoft's support was entirely behind the scenes. Gregerson told Stone, "They did a lot of meetings, but if you're going to be first in the nation on this, you've got to do more."

Opinion: Biden’s ‘Buy American’ policy could put risk goal of high-speed internet for all Americans; we 'cannot do both'

Photo via Brookings Institution

By Blair Levin
Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution 

In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden highlighted the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program for connecting unserved and underserved locations to broadband. Part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Biden boasted that the program would connect everyone: “We’re making sure that every community has access to affordable, high-speed internet.”

In the same address, Biden went on to declare, “When we do these projects, we’re going to buy American. … I’m also announcing new standards to require all construction materials used in federal infrastructure projects to be made in America.” The problem is that the country can close the rural digital divide in the next few years, or it can enforce a strict Buy American mandate. It cannot do both—requiring the administration to decide which principle it wants to prioritize over the other.

Biden’s declaration kicked off an administrative process designed to address how the Buy American policy applies to government-funded broadband networks. The day after the State of the Union, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration — the agency charged with distributing broadband deployment dollars — said, “The president made clear that while Buy America has been the law of the land since 1933, too many administrations have found ways to skirt its requirements. We will not.” The Office of Management and Budget also began a process “to clarify existing requirements” and “provide further guidance on implementing these statutory requirements.”

The question the Biden administration must address is whether the Buy American requirements apply to 100% of the materials used in the construction of a BEAD-funded broadband network or whether it can be waived for specific components not currently produced in the U.S. In examining that issue, the administration should consider three fundamental realities.

First, no matter what it decides, more than 90% of the total cost of broadband construction will go to American labor and materials. Seventy percent will go to labor, and of the remaining 30% of construction costs, 70% will be spent on the fiber conduit, for which there is an existing American supply.

Second, there are many critical elements of broadband networks that, while representing less than 10% of the budget, are essential and cannot, in the near term, be sourced from American manufacturers. As the NTIA already discovered in analyzing the Buy American implications for its Middle Mile Grant Program, certain critical components (including “broadband switching equipment, broadband routing equipment, dense wave division multiplexing transport equipment, and broadband access equipment”) are “sourced exclusively from Asia.” 

Third, if the Buy American requirements are enforced for all the components necessary to deploy and operate the networks, it will cause significant delays in deploying broadband networks everywhere. Those deploying the networks would have to halt their current plans until they convince enterprises capable of manufacturing those components to do so in the United States. . . . This would mean further delays until new facilities are constructed and produce a sufficient supply of components (which go through a rigorous testing process). 

In its OMB filing, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation summarized the situation this way: Requiring all components to be manufactured in the U.S. “would be gambling BEAD funds on successful negotiations with foreign manufacturers, the successful construction of sufficient manufacturing capacity, and successful sustaining of that capacity throughout the construction of BEAD projects. All three gambles are highly uncertain and unnecessary.”

Over the past year, internet service providers and all 50 states have spent significant capital setting up the functions necessary to award BEAD funding and start constructing networks in the next 12 months. If the process is delayed by several years, we don’t know if states will still have the personnel devoted to the effort. Further, greater inroads in rural markets by fixed wireless broadband and satellite ISPs will make those markets less attractive to fiber-based service providers, therefore increasing the capital funding caps that BEAD needs to cover.

This is not a new problem. As an industry coalition noted in a letter to the NTIA, “Although the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act imposed identical requirements, NTIA and the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service determined that a waiver for broadband equipment was necessary to effectively implement the legislation.”

There are solutions that would honor the aspirations of both the Buy American policy and the infrastructure law’s broadband provisions. The simplest way would be for the OMB or NTIA to issue a waiver for all BEAD project components except fiber optic and copper cable. . . . There is a need for speed. The NTIA will finalize funding allocations to states by June 30, and states will finalize their plans by the year’s end. . . . President Biden is on solid ground in contending that bringing broadband to all communities would constitute a historic achievement for his administration and America. But inflexibility on Buy American provisions could put this once-in-a-generation opportunity at risk of failure.

Subsidy program helps close 'digital divide' but process and lack of awareness mean only 1/3 of eligible have enrolled

Photo by John Schnobrich, Unsplash

Low-income families struggle to afford internet service, but there is federal assistance to help them gain access. The program, known as the Affordable Connectivity Program, has struggled to reach consumers. "It has enrolled only one-third  of the eligible population. . . . Experts say there are two reasons the program isn't reaching the people: awareness and process," reports Molly Bolan of Route Fifty. "To improve adoption rates, the Federal Communications Commission announced enhancements to its application process to make it easier for eligible consumers to apply and enroll in the program."

Bolan explains, "The $14.2 billion program provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward internet service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying tribal lands. . . . . according to EducationSuperHighway, a nonprofit working to close the digital divide, up to 51 million households are eligible."

"There is a big lack of awareness that the program even exists, particularly amongst the populations that it intends to serve," Jack Lynch, chief operating officer of EducationSuperHighway, told Bolan. "If you can mobilize [local organizations and institutions] to raise awareness about the ACP through the regular channels they're already using to engage with the folks, that can be a really, really effective strategy in cutting through those both the awareness and the trust issues."

Community outreach through schools, churches and libraries can be costly; however, "New federal funding is available to cities and organizations looking to bolster their outreach efforts. The White House recently announced $73 million in ACP Outreach grants. The funding will help governments and partner organizations with outreach through initiatives like digital campaigns, enrollment events and door-to-door canvassing."

Once consumers are aware of the program and go to sign up, getting through the application process becomes a hurdle. "Two of the biggest barriers to enrollment are understanding eligibility requirements and having the digital skills necessary to sign up," Bolan reports." To address the problem, "EducationSuperHighway developed an interactive online tool in four languages to help people understand their eligibility and what information they need to have to enroll."

"There is still one big challenge for the program on the horizon: funding is expected to run out next year," Bolan writes. "But while nationwide enrollment is relatively low today, the ACP has made a big difference in a lot of communities. Brian Donoghue, deputy director of Next Century Cities, said he expects advocates to push for future congressional support." Donoghue told Bolan: "I see an incredible amount of value in where the program has gotten us. Millions more people are connected to the internet today than when this program started."