The ability of schools across the country to hold classes remotely is being tested as more close in an effort to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Also being tested: the ability of families to get their homes tech-ready so children can log in to virtual classrooms. More than 23,500 students across 33 campuses of the Northshore School District in suburban Seattle (WA) began joining Zoom or Microsoft Teams meetings with their teachers on March 9 and completing assignments via Google Classroom. But despite their proximity to Amazon and Microsoft’s headquarters, many families in the community were unable to meet the technical requirements. The district had to lend out computers to more than 2,600 homes and provide many with wireless hot spots as well.

As more schools close in response to the sweeping health crisis, this unprecedented remote-learning situation is expected to expose the tech gap between affluent and lower-income families and districts, as well as between urban and suburban districts and rural ones where high-speed internet doesn’t always exist. And even when everything works, there is always a question of how focused kids can be without the structure of a classroom.

A quarter-century ago, the idea of “educational technology” popularized the notion that children would benefit if computers in schools and libraries were connected to the internet. In 1996, Congress created the Federal Communications Commission’s E-Rate program, which provides discounts to libraries and K-12 schools to make broadband internet access more affordable. In 2014, the FCC modernized the program in order to bring more bandwidth, at competitive prices, to every school and library. In the succeeding years, K-12 schools have almost met the FCC’s 2014–15 short-term goal of fiber connections to every school, 100 Mbps per every 1,000 students and staff, and Wi-Fi in every classroom. But 1,356 schools across the nation still do not have access to sufficient broadband to meet the FCC’s short-term goal, which affects 2.3 million students. Even more students are impacted by the reality that only 28 percent to 32 percent of K-12 schools meet the FCC long-term goal of at least 1 Gbps per 1,000 students and staff. The progress of libraries is less certain; as of 2014, only 18 percent of public libraries had broadband connections delivering 1,000 Mbps (1 Gbps) or more; about 41 percent had service delivering 10 Mbps or less, the great majority of which was actually 1.5 Mbps or less.

But there’s more we can do to improve the effectiveness of the E-rate program.

Georgia utility companies have been pursuing opportunities to deliver broadband since the state passed legislation in April 2019 to encourage utility companies to provide broadband services. The latest example comes from Diverse Power Inc. and its internet affiliate Kudzu Networks, who have filed documents with the state public utilities commission regarding the purchase of fixed wireless broadband provider South Georgia Regional Information Technology Authority (SGRITA). Diverse/Kudzu and SGRITA operate in rural areas of the state and serve some of the same counties.

The Senate Judiciary Committee met to discuss tech companies unfairly favoring their own products. And Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) announced the "Anticompetitive Exclusionary Conduct Prevention Act" to limit “exclusionary conduct” where a big company locks out smaller competitors, among other changes to antitrust law. It increases the burden of proof on monopolists to prove they’re not suppressing competition, and it discourages courts from granting immunity from antitrust enforcement. “We have a major monopoly problem in this country, which harms consumers and threatens free and fair competition across our economy,” she said. “Companies need to be put on notice.”

But she promoted it during a Senate hearing on digital platforms, one of several events sparked by the backlash against large tech companies. The hearing covered the tactic of self-preferencing — where a company uses dominance in one area to privilege its other services, whether or not they’re the best option for consumers. “Depending on the circumstances, these types of practices can have a devastating effect of competition,” said Klobuchar. Much of the hearing focused on Google search — a particular sore spot for antitrust proponents.

Connected Nation Michigan found that while each community may face its own unique challenges to providing telehealth services, many trends and correlations may be found: 

• With regard to its state telehealth policy structure, Michigan is found to have a moderate telehealth policy environment, along with 17 other states. 
• By comparison, states with progressive state telehealth policies have lower rates on the Digital Divide Index proposed by Purdue University researcher Dr. Roberto Gallardo (DDI; this represents greater overall broadband access to more households) and fare better on both the socioeconomic and infrastructure indices that compose the DDI.
• Numerous Michigan counties have both infrastructure and socioeconomic opportunities that, if addressed, can improve broadband (and thus telehealth) opportunities for their residents.
• Across Michigan, ten counties are currently Care Underserved yet have relatively small digital divides to overcome, making them excellent targets for telehealth expansion in the near future. • In the five counties surveyed, approximately one in three adults (34%) said they went online to interact with healthcare providers in some form. Nearly one-half (48%) said they use the internet but do not interact with providers online, while the remaining 18% said they do not use the internet at all.
• Meanwhile, nearly two out of three respondents (62%) say their healthcare providers over an online portal, website, or mobile app where they can access their medical records, schedule appointments, or request a consultation.
• Among those who do interact with healthcare professionals online, the largest share (21%) interacted with a general practitioner or family physician, followed by those interacting with specialist physicians (15%); dentists, dental hygienists, or orthodontists (11%); convenient care facilities or walk-in clinics (9%); eye doctors, ophthalmologists, or opticians (9%); emergency rooms or hospitals (7%); and therapists, psychiatrists, or other mental health providers (5%).
• Interacting via a website is the most popular way of interacting with healthcare providers, used by 36% of those who interacted with providers online. This is followed in popularity by interacting via e-mail (34%), text messaging (17%), via mobile apps (12%), through video conference applications such as Skype (4%), and through social media (4%).
• Younger adults are most likely to use online tools to interact with healthcare providers online, with nearly one-half of respondents age 18-34 saying they do so at least occasionally.
• One in ten adults in these five counties have used online health services such as remote monitoring, counseling, or electronic reminders to follow their prescribed healthcare protocols within the past 12 months.
• Remote heart monitoring is the application used most often (used by 3.9% of adults in these counties), followed by electronic reminders to take medication or follow health protocols (2.3%); remote blood pressure monitoring (2.1%); remote glucose or blood sugar monitoring (1.8%); and accessing health or motivational coaching (1.5%).