Coronavirus Is Accelerating Broadband Growth

We will close rural broadband gaps faster, and more cost-effectively, if we let every provider—and every competing technology—participate in solving the problem. We also need to address the lack of computer hardware and digital literacy challenges that contribute to low adoption rates. Any legislative initiative must attack these challenges efficiently and effectively. Poor management and weak oversight in the 2009 stimulus plan led to billions being wasted on duplicative networks in areas that already had broadband, while truly unserved communities were ignored. Anticompetitive backroom deals excluded many infrastructure companies that could build networks most cost-effectively. I was undersecretary of Commerce during the Clinton administration when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 passed. That law produced some of the best and most affordable broadband in the world. As a result, 95% of Americans today have high-speed broadband available and 80% have access to gigabit speeds. Universal broadband should be a problem we solve together, not a platform for ideological chest-thumping.