A curious contrarian to this view is the current Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which has interpreted its statutory mandate to dramatically reduce its regulatory power cable companies, and wireless companies, while simultaneously asserting new authority to regulate prices and micromanage the activities of local governments.

A major tactic in the FCC’s effort to regulate cities is through its Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) process. The

However, even if motivated by the right reasons, the BDAC suffers from significant failures of design and execution. Due to these failures, I expect the BDAC and the FCC will adopt a framework in which industry gets all the benefits with no obligations, and municipalities will be forced to bear all the costs and receive no guaranteed benefits. This kind of process will result in a transfer of wealth from public to private enterprises—and leave American cities and metropolitan areas no better positioned to tap into digital telecommunications to unlock innovation and shared economic prosperity. Here I discuss what the BDAC got right and where it veered way off track

The Global Cities Initiative, a joint project of Brookings and JPMorgan Chase, is an initiative that aims to help leaders in U.S. metropolitan areas reorient their economies toward greater engagement in world markets.

• Infrastructure Connectivity: Infrastructure connectivity matters for regional competitiveness because firms rely upon global access, both physically and digitally, to participate in the efficiencies of global value chains. We measure infrastructure connectivity through aviation passenger flows and internet download speeds.