Is Innovation Outpacing Infrastructure?
Joseph Bunyard
Could the speed of innovation outpace the infrastructure upon which it relies? Global broadband use is at an all-time high, a decades long trend exacerbated by COVID-19. Every second, over 100 new devices connect to the internet. By 2021, the Internet of Things (IoT) — a consortium of interconnected, network-enabled hardware and software — will comprise an estimated 35 billion devices worldwide. The number of connected devices per person has risen steadily since the introduction of the smartphone. At the same time, the internet is reaching more users for the first time every day — approximately 640,000. With the demand for connectivity skyrocketing, can network infrastructure keep up?
The first wave of Coronavirus-related stay at home orders in March caused internet usage in the US to soar by 25%. Teleworking platforms — such as Zoom and Google Hangouts — tripled their average daily internet traffic. During the same period, social media and streaming service use increased by more than 30%. To keep pace with growing consumer demand, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted network providers temporary access to more airwaves as they scrambled to scale their infrastructure. Despite these efforts, 63% of counties in the US did not meet the FCC’s minimum criteria for broadband speed at the end March — up from 11% at the beginning of January.
The US has a capacity problem. Telecommunications companies and internet service providers have prioritized scaling existing network infrastructure over the development of new media. The advent of telecommunications generations, for example, is outpaced by consumer demand and heavily dependent on foreign companies. According to a Pew Research Center report published during the pandemic, 93% of Americans say, “a major interruption to their internet or cell phone service during the outbreak would be a problem in their daily life”, with 49% claiming that it would be “a very big problem.”
The FCC’s “Open Internet Rules,” often referred to as “Network Neutrality,” prevent internet service providers from prioritizing users’ access to work-related sites — like Zoom — over non-essential sites — like Netflix. While these rules were initially put in place to prevent a tiered internet in which sites paid to ensure better connectivity than their competitors, they now force students and workers telecommuting to compete for service with neighbors playing Xbox.
Lagging infrastructure and “Net Neutrality” may be inconvenient for at-home consumers, but they could be fatal during periods of network stress. The Navy’s hospital ships respond to natural disasters worldwide. Each ship offers 1,000 hospital beds, which rely on 10–15 IoT devices apiece. During the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, media outlets reporting on the disaster nearly made it worse. Their broadcasts required so much bandwidth that they effectively “crowded out” the hospital ship USNS Comfort. With even basic ship-to-shore electronic communication requiring “exceptional measures,” Comfort reverted to archaic paper processes in order to continue providing emergency services for wounded Haitians. While Navy officials have since taken steps to improve network resiliency aboard its hospital ships, they still describe “adequate broad-band” as one of their most challenging operational considerations.
Has the US prioritized innovative devices over necessary network infrastructure? The former dean of Tufts’ Fletcher School — Admiral James Stavridis, USN (ret) — says yes. The internet of things is to network infrastructure what smartphones are to the electrical grid. Smartphones are useless without an electrical grid to charge them. While the smartphone represents a remarkable evolution of the first telephone, the electrical grid used to power it has changed relatively little from the original design for New York City; electric companies have simply scaled — not innovated — to meet demand.
5G technology offers US companies a chance to better balance innovative devices with evolving services. The race to build 5G infrastructure is dominated by three main players: Finland’s Nokia, Sweden’s Ericsson, and China’s Huawei. Multiple cabinet members in the Trump administration have floated the idea of the US taking an ownership stake in Nokia or Ericsson. Others propose launching a government-backed US competitor in order to provide allies an alternative to China’s Huawei and the security concerns it presents. While the market incentivizes the development of devices, the US government could leverage the emergence of 5G technology to incentivize the development of more reliable networks with greater capacity.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the growing importance of networks to the US economy and the American way of life. Networks constitute critical infrastructure, which must keep pace with evolving technology. Prioritizing network innovation over scaling is key to ensuring that innovation does not outpace infrastructure.
Joseph Bunyard is a first year graduate student in Carnegie Mellon’s Master of Information Technology Strategy program. His interests include emerging technology, information security, and defense modernization. He joined The Triple Helix to connect with students who share similar interests in an open, professional dialogue.
