Changing the Way We Build Broadband

One in three Americans doesn’t have internet at speeds fast enough to use Zoom. Despite being an essential utility, building out the nation’s internet infrastructure has been largely left to market forces with highly uneven results: 40 million Americans are still waiting to be connected. Large traditional internet service providers have not and will not invest in communities where the economics don’t fit their business models. And sparse, rural populations and low-income areas rarely provide the profit margins they demand. It’s time to shift the way broadband is built in America. We can close the digital divide while building local power, wealth, and opportunity. Social investors have an opportunity to drive this change, catalyzing billions in public and private capital for communities long ignored. There’s no time to waste.

[Jochai Ben-Avie is the Co-Founder and CEO of Connect Humanity. He also serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Truman National Security Fellow, and a World Economic Forum Global Shaper.]