Telecommunications is one of the sorts of infrastructure that the Trump administration wants to improve, but its interest seems limited to upgrading wireless infrastructure for eventual 5G service. That support might only include regulatory reform, particularly federal preemption of state and local laws and property rights, rather than money.
It’s hard to tell exactly what the Trump administration means when it puts out statements about spending plans, telecommunications or otherwise. And it’s impossible to know what congress will ultimately do. That said, the National Security Strategy paper released last week links telecommunications infrastructure upgrades with security policy, although the intended funding source could be telecoms companies and state and local governments, and not necessarily the feds…
Federal, state, and local governments will work together with private industry to improve our airports, seaports and waterways, roads and railways, transit systems, and telecommunications. The United States will use our strategic advantage as a leading natural gas producer to transform transportation and manufacturing. We will improve America’s digital infrastructure by deploying a secure 5G Internet capability nationwide. These improvements will increase national competitiveness, benefit the environment, and improve our quality of life.
It’s possible to read this as evidence that the Trump administration is swallowing the nonsense that mobile carriers are peddling about 5G being the ultimate replacement for all things broadband. That’s a stretch, but shouldn’t be completely dismissed, either. It’s worth keeping an eye on.
The big impact is that tying wireless infrastructure to national security gives a political boost to the Federal Communications Commission as it speeds toward even greater preemption of state and local control over wireless site permits and, perhaps, municipal property such as light poles. It also puts a veneer of respectability on even more radical recommendations made by industry-centric committees that are advising the FCC, including a de facto ban on municipal broadband systems() and confiscation of city-owned dark fiber.
The FCC will have bulletproof cover to hide behind, and a strong argument to make during the inevitable court challenges to any new wireless policy it makes. National security is, if you’ll pardon the expression, a trump card in domestic policy debates.