New Momentum Building for State Broadband Support Work

A new momentum has taken hold of state government work to support broadband infrastructure, access and usage. This momentum, experts say, is a direct result of an increased societal understanding of broadband as a utility, rather than as somewhat of a frivolous luxury. This was a consensus opinion at an event hosted by Pew Charitable Trusts featuring a morning of discussions with Pew researchers and state government employees engaged with broadband work. It was, perhaps, a very different set of conversations than the same group might have been having as recently as three years ago, said Kathryn de Wit, manager of the broadband research initiative for Pew Charitable Trusts. “More and more policymakers are seeing exactly why broadband matters,” de Wit said. “This isn’t something that’s viewed as a nice-to-have anymore, this isn’t about Netflix and cat videos ... it’s about what you can do by having that Internet access.” The spike in awareness, she continued, is closely related to state policymakers seeing that communities are missing out on employment opportunities, education opportunities, access to telehealth and the ability to retain their younger citizens.