In 2020 as public health restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly converted millions of American homes into offices, classrooms and medical clinics, the nation's accumulated deficits in advanced telecommunications infrastructure and related challenges of access and affordability that had been in place for years have now reached a crisis point. The root of the problem is a failure of planning and policy over the past quarter century to ensure decades old copper telephone lines tha...

A decade and a half into the twenty-first century, the United States is more than 20 years behind where it should be relative to constructing fiber optic telecommunications infrastructure to deliver advanced, Internet-based telecommunications services. Moreover, the nation has no credible, comprehensive plan to build this critical infrastructure to ensure it adequately serves all American homes, businesses and public institutions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it became apparent that ...