One nation, indivisible
For those of us who rely on high-speed broadband internet, the statistics around the digital divide in the US can be startling.
- 42 million Americans do not have access to high-speed internet (one in every eight people in the US).
- One out of every three K-12 students lacks adequate internet to sustain effective learning at home.
- 50% of people who do not have access to high-speed internet cite a lack of affordability as the reason.
This week we’re exploring the disparities in internet access, the underlying challenges, and some of the solutions aiming to eliminate the digital divide in the United States.
Wire the entire United States
Two weeks ago President Biden announced $42 billion in new federal funding to expand high-speed internet access across the country. The goal of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) is for broadband internet, defined as internet download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second, to reach the entire country by 2030.
Every US state and territory received funding based on the assessed need. Disbursements were proportional to the areas and the people who remain either entirely unserved or under-served.
- The state that received the most federal funding was Texas with $3.3 billion, with Delaware as the US state receiving the least with $107 million.
- Puerto Rico received $334 million and the US Virgin Islands received $27 million.
- Now states need to develop plans for how to use the money to bring high-speed broadband internet to disconnected and underserved communities.
BEAD is in addition to the 2021 passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the American Rescue Plan Act, which allocated $100 billion to bring broadband to every corner of America. Together, the 2021 laws represented the largest public investment to connect Americans since the creation of the Interstate Highway System in the 1920s.
Where is the digital divide?
The digital divide refers to the gap between those who have access to broadband internet, and those who do not.
- 93% of adult Americans use the internet, but the digital divide separates urban and rural communities. Of the counties in the US with the highest digital divide, only 17% were urban (check out this interactive map to find out which side of the digital divide you’re on).
- There are 8.5 million families and small businesses who do not have access to high-speed internet. In a state like West Virginia, which has been historically underserved, 270,000 homes, businesses, and other locations are without internet.
Looking beyond the US, the global digital divide is even starker. According to the UN, almost half the world’s population, or 3.7 billion people, are still offline (the majority of them are women and most are in developing countries). Check out Project Liberty Alliance member, Connect Humanity, and its work to connect communities both in the US and globally.
The COVID effect
In America, the COVID pandemic proved just how important digital access was for everyone: from workers to students to the elderly.
- A 2021 report from Pew Research found that during the pandemic, 90% of all American adults cited the internet as “important” or “essential.”
- 60 percent of disconnected K-12 students, particularly Black and urban students, are unable to afford internet service.
- During the pandemic when many students were forced to rely on their household internet service to learn from home, a lack of access to high-speed internet had bearings on academic performance. The pandemic revealed a “homework gap” between low-income students (whose families often struggle to afford internet) and their wealthier and more connected peers.
Technician arrival window: between now and 2030
For those who fall on the disconnected side of the digital divide, BEAD might be a boost in the right direction, but it’s not a quick fix.
- Assessing the actual need: Determining which people and which areas are unserved or underserved is complicated, contentious, and historically rife with wrong estimates and mistakes. The latest maps from the Federal Communications Commission have corrected 4 million mistakes from previous estimates.
- Build-out of broadband internet is complicated and expensive: In places like West Virginia, the rocky terrain itself makes broadband rollout expensive, and installing internet fiber is costly and slow.
- Competing technologies: There is no one-size tech fix for the digital divide. Between broadband internet and new 5G technology, companies are rolling out a range of new technologies to meet the demand for a data-rich internet experience. But new technologies like 5G pose potential challenges to air travel.
- The private sector’s profit motive: Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon, and others have been found to offer slower internet in lower-income neighborhoods at the same price as fast connections in wealthier neighborhoods.
- Broadband is no panacea: High-speed broadband internet is just one component of a more comprehensive suite of solutions to eliminate the digital divide. High-costs, a lack of training, labor shortages, and other obstacles stand in the way of bringing the disconnected online. At a macro level, a report by McKinsey has outlined recommendations states can take to be well positioned. At a micro-level, this photo essay from Brookings highlights how local topography can be a challenge in getting broadband to one community.
Logging off is a privilege, logging on is a right
In the 1930s, nearly 90 percent of farms and ranches in the US lacked electric power because the costs to get electricity to rural areas were prohibitive. The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 set out to change that, and by 1950, almost 80% of farms had electricity.
To achieve a similar transformation and make high-speed internet accessible for every American by 2030, federal funding to expand high-speed internet is just the start (in fact, BEAD is just one of five separate broadband access programs). More is needed, including:
- Improved affordability: Because the cost of internet is often prohibitive, new federal programs like the Affordable Connectivity Program offer a discount of up to $30 per month for eligible participants and up to $75 per month for eligible participants on Tribal lands.
- New technologies: New technologies are also driving costs down while improving internet quality. Satellite internet (similar to satellite TV) is expanding access into rural areas, and 5G home internet plans are starting to be offered by mobile carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile with stronger download speeds.
- Considering the human factor: Simply expanding access to unreached areas could technically reduce the divide, but it won’t necessarily change human behaviors. A recent study, which focused on reducing the digital divide for immigrant communities, “found that there are social, cultural, and environmental reasons that may prevent some communities from getting all the value they could out of internet access” like language barriers and a lack of technical proficiency to navigate online.
Over time, the digital divide in the US might transition from a binary divide into more of a spectrum of access, download speeds, and varying individual skills to take advantage of internet connectivity. And even if we can eliminate the digital divide in the US, there will be new digital divides: divides over who owns our data, divides between big tech platforms and everyday users, divides between what is true and what is a deepfake.
For everyone to tap into the power of the internet, we will need to look beyond the tactics and strategies around new federal funding, the roll-out of new technologies, or creative public-private partnerships. To tackle the digital divide in the US and abroad, we will need to recognize that to function and thrive in our increasingly digital world, the right to adequate internet access is fundamental.
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