Repairing Broken Broadband Policy

Before the pandemic-driven surge of public investment in broadband networks, the federal government had subsidized rural broadband by approximately $6 billion a year. So why does the rural-urban digital divide persist? Why are we looking to the new infrastructure bill to solve a problem that should have been solved a decade ago? Author of Farm Fresh Broadband Dr. Christopher Ali argues that rural broadband policy is both broken and incomplete, proposing a new national broadband plan. Join SHLB Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen for a virtual fireside chat with Dr. Ali, to pick his brain on where the U.S. is going wrong and how to course correct rural broadband policy moving forward. And of course, they’ll discuss where community anchor institutions fit into it all.

Dr. Christopher Ali is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. He holds a PhD in Communication Studies from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include: communication policy and regulation, rural broadband, critical political economy, critical geography, media localism, and local news.