President Joe Biden wants to provide millions of Americans with high-speed internet. It won’t be easy.

Even before the pandemic, which largely confined most Americans to their homes for months, communities that lacked reliable high-speed internet began falling behind those that were well-connected. The pandemic exacerbated the nation’s "digital divide" – and those who suffered most were in low-income areas. Washington and some internet providers are trying to solve the problem by expanding access, but experts and lawmakers haven't settled on what specifically needs to be done, even as President Joe Biden and Republican lawmakers want to invest billions into a broadband-expansion effort.  In America's 100 counties with the highest median income, about 95% of households have broadband access on average – while that number is 63% in the 100 poorest counties, according to data from the Federal Communications Commission, which tracks internet availability nationally. In terms of actual usage, Microsoft data paints an even bleaker picture. About 12% of those poorest counties’ residents use broadband on average, compared with 65% in America's wealthiest counties. A Pew study found 43% of adults in the USA earning less than $30,000 a year lack broadband compared with just 7% for those making $100,000 or more.

The mission to plug more people into high-speed networks is a question of what strategy is best – not to mention a big federal investment. There's a question over whether to prioritize areas of the country, mostly rural, where the physical infrastructure to support broadband hasn’t been built, or whether to focus first on urban and suburban areas where the larger problem is affordability. Then there's the question of how best to bring down the cost of high-speed internet: continue long-term with federal subsidies for low-income households or push for more competition.