More than 10.7 million low-income households in the United States lack access to quality internet service. In cities like San Jose, Calif., local governments are using streetlight poles to facilitate equitable access to high-speed internet to dramatically improve educational outcomes for low-income students and expand economic opportunity for their families. Unfortunately, a recent mandate by the Federal Communications Commission might halt the progress made by these cities.

Access to reliable, high-speed internet service — commonly referred to broadband — has become a necessity, not a luxury. An overwhelming majority of public-school teachers assign homework that requires online access, leaving far too many students unable to perform the basic tasks critical for academic success. The sight of public-school students finishing their algebra homework in fast-food restaurants and coffee shops, where they have access to free public Wi-Fi, has compelled hundreds of cities and school districts to find ways to bridge what one official has called “the cruelest part of the digital divide”: the homework gap.

Cities throughout the United States increasingly look to their own streetlight poles to meet this challenge. Because of their optimal height and access to power, the poles can enable emerging telecommunications technologies to deliver high-quality cellular and data service (and eventually 5G service) using small cell devices, and public broadband using Wi-Fi-transmitting hardware. In addition, the ubiquitous presence of streetlight poles can make it easier to deliver high-quality wireless and internet service more equitably throughout a city and connect those low-income neighborhoods that remain vastly underserved.

Sensing this enormous opportunity, many mayors in the United States have welcomed the opportunity to partner with the private sector to equip their city-owned streetlight poles with these new technologies and achieve more equitable access in their communities. However, the telecommunications industry has quietly worked to usurp control over these coveted public assets and utilize publicly owned streetlight poles for their own profit, not the public benefit.