The FCC’s leadership during the COVID-19 crisis: A model for effective governance
Written by Jesse Blumenthal, Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Stand Together.
Despite adequate warnings and months to prepare, America’s slow response to the COVID-19 outbreak is apparent at virtually every level of government. From a lack of adequate testing to slow social-distancing recommendations from public officials, there were many missed opportunities to keep people safe.
Alec Stapp has a must-read timeline of regulatory failures that hampered U.S. testing up at The Dispatch. As Stapp notes, the FDA was six weeks too late in allowing private companies and public labs to obtain Emergency Use Authorization to scale up public testing for COVID-19.
While plenty has gone wrong over the past few weeks, it’s worth taking a moment to acknowledge what went right. Millions of Americans moved their work, education, and social lives nearly entirely online…and it worked.
Technology connects us in ways that were easy to take for granted before we began to socially isolate. For doctors and patients, telehealth services have provided a safer way to administer and receive top-quality care.
For many individuals and businesses, teleworking has been a lifeline.
For students and their teachers, online classes and projects have allowed education to continue despite the doors to our nation’s schools being shuddered. [Side note: for those parents who have recently become at-home teachers, my colleagues have put together a Facebook group and website full of resources].
Perhaps just as importantly, technology has helped us to stay in touch with loved ones in ways that would have been impossible just a few decades ago.
A simple chart from Recode tells a story that many of us have experienced first-hand: internet traffic is up.
FCC commissioner Brendan Carr laid out the strong performance of U.S. networks in a detailed post on Medium. Whether it is via a wireless signal or wi-fi in the home, Americans are increasingly online. As analyst Roger Entner explained on Shane Tews’ new AEI podcast, broadband usage that typically peaks around 9pm is up 30–35%. That internet usage is always broadening. “The busy hour, while still peaking somewhere around 7 to 9pm, starts now at around 8am to 9am because [of] consumer traffic….but things are holding up well, because networks are being built in the United States with one to one-and-a-half years of forward capacity in mind.” On one hand, top-down failures at FDA and elsewhere in the federal government significantly delayed the development and deployment of testing. On the other hand, the private sector-led approach to deployment and resilience facilitated by the FCC ensured that Americans remained connect.
The contrast is stark.
That is not to say that government does not have a role to play, but it’s limited.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai deserves credit for quickly developing and launching the Keep Americans Connected pledge to ensure no American loses broadband and telephone service at a time when it is needed most.
Under the terms of the pledge, broadband and telephone providers have made three essential commitments to American consumers: First, no residential or small business subscribers will have their service terminated over the next 60 days because of an inability to pay their bills due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Second, any late fees incurred by residential or small business customers because of their economic circumstances related to the pandemic will be waived during this period. Finally, Wi-Fi hotspots will be opened up to any American who needs them.
The FCC demonstrated what light-touch leadership can look like in a crisis and American companies have responded. Hundreds of companies, large and small, connecting tens of millions of Americans, have embraced these principles.
From the consumer-facing companies that Americans use to search, share, and chat to the intermediaries and connectivity companies that make those services possible, the private sector, led by American tech firms, is showing just how valuable it can be in the wake of a crisis.
A critic might say comparing the federal government’s approach to COVID-19 testing with internet connectivity is like comparing FDA apples to FCC oranges. Well, how about European oranges?
It is a direct contrast to the command and control approach taken by European Union tech regulators (and those in the US who hold the outdated mindset that the solution to any problem is allowing the government to seize power). European Union officials have publicly warned that their infrastructure cannot handle this new demand from consumers and are pressuring companies to downgrade their service to ration capacity.
The commitments made by U.S. internet service providers are possible because of decades of significant investments in improving their networks at rates much higher than their European counterparts.
And while the response to this crisis by the FCC deserves praise, it comes from an approach to governing that rejects central planning and a utility-style approach to their role. As Entner explained on AEI’s Explain to Shane, it is an ongoing commitment to investment that is reflected in the resiliency of our connectivity. “American operators are investing, and have been investing, far more than operators in other countries…Some of the last-mile problems that we seem to be seeing in Europe we largely don’t see here.”
These lessons are not just applicable in a crisis. Regulatory humility can, should, and does guide the agency’s work. This is true whether it’s keeping America connected during this crisis, longer-term challenges like closing the digital divide, or paving the way for the next generation of technological innovation. When regulatory agencies open the doors to innovation, good things happen in short order.
