Op-Ed

Work-from-home (WFH) and collaboration trends jump-started by the pandemic aren’t going away, according to the latest Futurum Research survey, with large businesses continuing to support WFH in various degrees regardless of the industry. The organization surveyed 525 key decision-makers across important industry verticals, identifying which businesses had an official WFH policy today and those providing support on an informal basis without an established policy.

In eastern Idaho, two relatively small towns, Idaho Falls (population 62,000) and Ammon (16,000) have begun treating broadband as an essential service. These fairly conservative communities offer residents access to lightning-fast internet at low cost. They rely on variations of the same theme to achieve these results: public network ownership. It’s a model that’s gaining steam nationwide, with Detroit (MI) set to begin construction on a $10 million network explicitly modeled after the one engineered in tiny Ammon.

Why should taxpayers subsidize improvements in rural America (“Why Rural Americans Keep Waiting for Fast Internet,” Page One, June 16)? Rural communities account for nearly one-fifth of America’s population and one-tenth of its gross domestic product. They provide water, food and energy to the country. Although well-intentioned, government contracts are only as effective as their oversight. Clearly the government fell short in Heavener (OK) and elsewhere.

A basic human right — the ability to fully participate in modern life via affordable, reliable, high-speed internet service — remains out of reach for many. The Biden administration recently announced it had reached agreements with 20 leading internet providers, covering more than 80 percent of Americans, to provide households eligible for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) high-speed internet plans for no more than $30 a month. But are those that can receive the benefit getting what they need to enroll?

As state and local governments and their partners plan to invest billions of dollars in federal funding to build broadband infrastructure, choosing the best technology will have significant long-term implications.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) helps low-income families and individuals ease the financial burden of making tough choices between paying for groceries and other household necessities or paying for high-speed internet service. The funds that the ACP provides for eligible households to afford high-speed internet access can help level the playing field for low-income families and individuals by increasing their access to educational, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities; civic engagement; telehealth services; and more.

As of June 2022, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has been live for six months, providing monthly discounts on the internet bills and device costs of over 12.4 million households in the United States.

Although there is already a ton of fantastic work being done on the ground, many of the groups doing that work would benefit from more funding that could be used to conduct direct Affordable Connectivity Program outreach, train digital navigators, and more. The Federal Communications Commission is currently engaged in a rulemaking to develop rules for how the grant program would work.

The broadband industry is at a unique crossroads. Between the many federal and state broadband funding opportunities that are now in play, well over $100 billion will be made available over the next five years. This funding cycle can help fuel the dramatic expansion of fiber broadband across the entire country, helping bring the promise of broadband to the unserved and underserved.

For college students, reliable broadband access isn’t just about watching a new Netflix series or playing video games. It affects our very ability to educate ourselves and, by extension, to shape our futures and contribute to our democratic society. It allows us to read our online textbooks, to access articles and books for our research assignments, and to upload resumes for jobs and internships.