Why Technical Solutions Alone Cannot Save the Open Internet
- The resilience of the open Internet increasingly depends on the resilience of its wireless access layer. As Wi-Fi, 5G, and shared-spectrum systems become the primary on-ramps to the global network, the Internet’s stability is shaped as much by spectrum policy, wireless standards, and access-network governance as by core Internet protocols. Yet the most significant barriers to a secure, reliable, and open Internet are not technical. They are governance challenges: fragmented accountability across wireless and wireline systems, misaligned incentives between operators and platforms, regulatory frameworks that lag the pace of spectrum innovation, and the absence of widely adopted standards for critical information delivery under degraded or crisis conditions. This session brings together leaders from advanced wireless, Internet governance, and public-interest policy to examine where wireless and Internet resilience are now inseparable — and why the next decade of openness will depend on aligning the governance of both.
