Susan Crawford does an excellent job of demystifying a flurry of bills that on the surface are about facilitating the any-day-now, better-than-ever, but not-really-here-any-time-soon technology of 5G. I feel like we should have learned our lesson about carriers and public rights of way by now, that they rarely if ever repay the public trust. Her article contains a lot of good technical detail, as well, about what 5G will and won’t deliver and when, all important to bear in mind when carriers come knocking to your state or locality with a bushel of too good to be true promises, if only we erode or eliminate critical public oversight.
Carriers are pushing states and the FCC to constrain public rights. They say it’s for the mythical “5G.” We should be very skeptical.
Source: Handcuffing Cities to Help Telecom Giants – Backchannel