A Signal Failure: Education, Broadband, and Our Children’s Future

Solving the problems of internet access goes well beyond throwing billions of dollars at the companies with the best lobbyists or most convincing executives. There is no single policy to solve the broadband problems faced by the nation. In most cases, better networks and lower prices would really help, but achieving that would require different strategies in rural or urban areas. Challenges around literacy and online safety/security will be more difficult.,Building rural infrastructure requires a long-term focus on what helps the community to flourish rather than how much profit a network can extract from it. The first step to getting everyone connected is to remove barriers. Allow nonprofit and public approaches to at least compete on a level playing field for state and federal subsidies. Embracing nonprofit and public business models may be politically more challenging, but it offers far greater benefits. These approaches do not stop or even degrade if future governments cease appropriating funds—the networks will generate sufficient funds for operation and perhaps even modest growth.

We face a choice. In the wake of the racial justice uprisings, is it time to demonstrate a commitment to real equity by building better networks using nonprofit and public business models? Doing so will allow communities to permanently solve connectivity challenges, improving equity in education, healthcare, and far more.

[Christopher Mitchell is Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR).]