Op-Ed

As the conditions of students without home broadband access or a device mirror the broad systemic inequalities of the US, Congress must do more than offer piecemeal funding to connect K-12 students to the internet.

Washington seems poised, yet again, to try to address broadband infrastructure by throwing billions of dollars at it to be managed at the national level, and already there is a chorus of voices demanding that access to broadband be “free.” All this will ensure the effort fails. What’s needed is a recognition that the only approach that can succeed is a novel combination of public-private partnerships at the local level. The important recognition is that cities are not monolithic. Broadband is a neighborhood issue, driven by different socioeconomic factors that must be addressed.

The Internet Atlas Project at the University of California, Berkeley's goal is to shine a light on long-term risks to the internet. We produce indicators of weak points and bottlenecks that threaten the internet’s stability. Our research shows that the internet is facing twin dangers; on one side, there’s the threat of total consolidation. Power over the internet has been increasingly concentrated primarily in the hands of a few, US-based organizations. On the other side, there’s fragmentation.

One might think this is the moment for community broadband networks. The truth is, locally-directed networks have been serving their communities for a long, long time. In discussing his administration’s plans for broadband, President Joe Biden noted that municipal and cooperative networks should be favored because these providers face less pressure to turn profits and are more committed to serving entire communities.

"Billions for broadband" are about to pour out of Washington. That sounds good, but it is not aligned with the reality faced by many individual states, counties and towns. In rural – as well as some poor urban – areas, the "business model" for private ISPs “prevents” them from offering service. That is to say, they can’t make the minimum profit margins that they require. And they're right. They can't. For these areas (like mine in Maine, one of America's most rural, least wealthy and oldest-in-average-age states), the result is no choice of ISP.

Tech companies' calls for or against “regulating technology” do not mean much in and of themselves. The irony is that for years, lobbyists have had a field day with the opposite framing, that “regulation stifles innovation.” After the idea caught on, it effectively paralyzed democratic lawmakers who did not want to be seen as old-fashioned or getting in the way of exciting technologies and digital opportunities. Looking at what companies do in practice, beyond touting support for “regulation,” is revealing.

Libraries may be on the brink of a great mobilization to narrow the digital divide. The needs are there, and money is certainly available. If given creative reign with telehealth, great things can come from even the smallest of libraries in these areas:

While making broadband available is an obvious first step to closing the digital divide, getting people to use it as a way of life takes more than bringing it to their doorsteps. Over the coming weeks and months, Congress, industry and stakeholders must work together to formulate a multi-pronged approach that not only tackles broadband availability and affordability, but also the accessibility component of the digital divide. The National Urban League’s Lewis Latimer Plan sh

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently released a new public map, the Indicators of Broadband Need. This publicly available resource accompanies the National Broadband Availability Map (NBAM), pulling together public and private broadband internet access service datasets.

The US government is negotiating a plan to address one of the most important—but overlooked—problems facing the country: the digital divide. While this problem is often talked about as a simple problem of access to broadband internet service, it is deeper and more complex than mere infrastructure. In truth, the digital divide also is a problem of inclusivity, institutions, and individual proficiency, and a solution needs to address all four dimensions. To close the digital divide, policymakers should: