A First for Digital Equity and Broadband Adoption

The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing entitled Empowering and Connecting Communities Through Digital Equity and Internet Adoption. To our recollection, it was the first Congressional hearing exploring digital equity and broadband adoption. Digital equity, if you are new to the term, is defined by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance as a condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy, and economy. Although many of us may take ubiquitous internet access for granted, at least 141 million people in the United States do not subscribe to fixed home Internet at the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband benchmark -- 25 Megabits per second download and 3 Megabits per second up (what policy wonks commonly refer to as 25/3 Mbps). The part of this divide that has garnered the most attention of late is those geographical areas (mostly rural) where broadband networks simply have yet to be deployed. But the bigger obstacles are that for too many people, a network is available but unattainable because the cost of service is too high, the price of internet-capable devices is too steep an investment, and/or they lack the skills needed to connect to and navigate the internet. More than half of American adults are “relatively hesitant” when it comes to using broadband technology. Digital equity recognizes the truly universal ambitions of broadband adoption.