Spotty broadband is robbing students of their education during COVID-19

5G could help solve the last-mile problem by bringing high-speed internet from the fiber backbone to the home. This hybrid solution could be a more realistic approach to connecting some areas of the country. However, the effort might still remain financially prohibitive for some providers, which might result in the need for the government to step in and subsidize part of the effort.

Looking at the driverless cars and smart cities of the future, it’s clear to me that connectivity will one day be seen as no less a necessity than gas, electricity, and water. But why wait until then? If a human right like education is denied because of a lack of connectivity, we should treat it as a vital utility today.

[Carolina Milanesi is principal analyst at Creative Strategies and founder of The Heart of Tech, a tech consultancy focused on education and diversity.]