Misunderstanding of the digital divide's scope hinders broadband funding efforts

Our broadband system needs help. Americans have vastly different abilities to get online or to connect at decent speeds, depending on where they live. The problem is acute in rural areas but also in cities where certain neighborhoods, often those populated by communities of color, can have far worse connections than people living just a few miles away. But while Congress has been trying to help with billions already allocated to improve internet access and the bipartisan infrastructure bill's $65 billion for broadband, more money won't necessarily solve a basic problem: Nobody in Washington or the private sector appears to know precisely which areas of the US need better broadband access. Microsoft is just one of the many groups outside of Washington trying to at least understand the scope of the problem. Government data shows that around 14.5 million Americans don’t have any access to broadband, but Microsoft’s internal data finds a much larger swath of Americans — about 120.4 million people — don’t currently use the internet at broadband speeds, defined as download speeds of 25 Mbps and upload speeds of 3 Mbps. “The best time to update our broadband maps was years ago,” an FCC spokesperson said about the issue. “But the second-best time is now — and we’re on it.”