Life without reliable internet remains a daily struggle for millions of Americans

The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill recently signed by President Biden aims to help alleviate the problem by setting aside $65 billion for investment in broadband. According to Kathryn de Wit, project director for the Broadband Access Initiative at the Pew Charitable Trusts, the package is a "significant down payment" in getting underserved households connected — in part because it also leant on the Federal Communications Commission to better determine exactly who lacked high-speed internet access. In 2020, separate legislation required the FCC to update its broadband access maps. Tired of waiting for those updates, some states have already deployed their own methods to track broadband access. The new legislation pressures the FCC to finish its map updates by making the funding contingent on the submission of those updates — and also stipulates a process by which states may challenge the FCC's maps with their own. What is clear even with the spotty available data is that most of the people who lack access to broadband live in rural, remote, low-income and tribal lands. Low population density and geographic barriers may discourage a service provider from offering service to that region. De Wit said the new data from the FCC would help not only understand where broadband access is most needed, but also illustrate where there may be a connection available, but not affordable. "The digital divide is really complicated, and so where we would like to see additional support is for state and local leaders to be able to collect the data that they need in order to illustrate just how many unserved households there are in communities that are 'served' based on federal data," she said.