New ways needed for closing digital divides?

As America gears up for President Joe Biden’s (trimmed down) $65 billion plan to connect every American to affordable high-speed internet, almost inevitably the focus turns to rolling out infrastructure — notably terrestrial fiber — into unserved (or underserved), predominantly rural communities. Yet the focus on building more infrastructure glosses over the reality that the number of urban households without an internet connection — despite some of the world’s best infrastructure passing their doors — exceeds the number of unconnected rural households by a ratio of nearly three to one (13.6 million versus 4.6 million). Addressing this urban access divide will not be achieved by the usual means of subsidizing operators to connect the unconnected — even when the subsidized network is owned by a municipality or other nonprofit entity. 

If the barriers to household connection are economic, then the logical solution is to fund the household, not the network operator. The concept of funding beneficiaries rather than network providers is not new. [With the Emergency Broadband Benefit in effect] what is now offered is the chance to make these sorts of subsidies permanent features of welfare plans, rather than one-off opportunities to make step changes in infrastructure availability. As with access to food and health care funds, broadband access for low-income households must be properly, securely, and sustainably funded over time and not reliant upon one-off ad-hoc interventions to suit other political and fiscal needs.

[Bronwyn Howell is an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute]