Remarks Of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on the Digital Divide At The Hawaii International Conference On Science Systems

The Internet has become an indispensable platform for innovation, job creation, and free expression. It is critical to our quality of life and our global competitiveness. To take advantage of the major innovations that will be introduced in the coming years, Americans will need to be connected. And that, of course, only serves to underscore why the Federal Communications Commission’s top priority must be to expand the deployment of high-speed broadband networks to all American. I’m pleased to report that our strategy of encouraging investment and innovation is working. After falling in 2015 and 2016, broadband investment in the United States increased in 2017 and 2018. And by almost every meaningful metric, America’s broadband networks have been expanding and improving. Since December 2017, the average fixed broadband download speed in the United States has increased by about 70%.

When we talk about the digital revolution, no area has greater potential for transformative change in the coming years than healthcare. At the FCC, we believe that broadband-enabled innovation represents a sea change in healthcare delivery—one that will broadly impact the field of healthcare. We want to encourage that innovation, which means ensuring that broadband is as ubiquitous as possible. We don’t want connectivity gaps that could hold back digital medicine.