The FCC's Latest Plan to Close the Rural Digital Divide

This week we learned that the Federal Communications Commission will vote on its latest plan to subsidize broadband deployment in rural areas at its January meeting. The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, first proposed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai back in August, will provide up to $20.4 billion over the next decade to support the deployment of broadband networks in those parts of rural America that currently lack fixed broadband service that meets the FCC's baseline speed standards (25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload). The support is greatly needed to extend broadband's reach. But as my colleague, Robbie McBeath, asked this summer, can slapping "new and improved" on an existing program really close the Digital Divide?