Digital Infrastructure Investment: Session Three Preview

In our third and final panel of the day, Broadband Breakfast’s Digital Infrastructure Investment conference will consider The Future of Funding for Shared Infrastructure.

This session will be moderated by Drew Clark, the Editor and Publisher of Broadband Breakfast, in discussion with Blair Levin, the former director of the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan.

In addition to founding Broadband Breakfast and serving as executive director of Broadband Illinois, Drew is a nationally-respected telecommunications attorney at Marashlian & Donahue, The CommLaw Group. He follows and navigates the trends in and mechanics of digital infrastructure, and has helped fiber-based and fixed wireless providers navigate coverage, identify markets, broker infrastructure, and operate in the public right of way.

Blair, his guest, is a Policy Advisor to New Street Research. He closely tracks the policy and financial impacts of broadband investment. The former chief of staff of the FCC, he also served as executive director of Gig.U: a project seeking to support educational and economic development by accelerating the deployment of next generation networks, and is a fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Drew and Blair will build on the discussions that have taken place in Session 1, on last-mile infrastructure, and in Session 2, on infrastructure investment funds.

Of particular concern in this wrap-up session will be the future of funding vertical wireless assets. Cellular towers were once proprietary, before carriers partnered with infrastructure owners.

Will shared infrastructure also take over small cells and 5G? What role will federal funding play in supporting wireless and other shared infrastructure facilities?