Digital Divide

Increasing access to broadband and other telecommunications services in rural areas, including on Tribal lands, has been one of my top priorities. The good news is that the percentage of Americans living on Tribal lands who lack access to high-speed broadband has been cut in half since I arrived at the Federal Communications Commission in 2012. The bad news is that that percentage is still over four times higher than for the overall US population.

[Commentary] How can we improve the biggest tool to closing the digital divide in the Federal Communications Commission’s toolbox: the Connect America Fund. Back in 2011, the FCC adopted a performance goal for the Connect America Fund of ensuring universal access to fixed broadband and concluded it would measure progress towards this outcome based on the number of newly served locations — but it did not articulate any concrete vision for when this universal service goal might be achieved.

Sens Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced the bipartisan Rural Reasonable and Comparable Wireless Act of 2018 to help close the urban-rural digital divide and expand access to broadband in rural communities.

President Donald Trump's new 10-year plan for "rebuilding infrastructure in America" doesn't contain any funding specifically earmarked for improving Internet access. Instead, the plan sets aside a pool of funding for numerous types of infrastructure projects, and broadband is one of the eligible categories. Broadband would be eligible for funding from a proposed $20 billion Transformative Projects Program, along with transportation, clean water, drinking water, energy, and commercial space.

President Donald Trump's $200 billion infrastructure proposal released Feb 12 includes $50 billion in funding for rural communities, but nothing specific for broadband deployment. Even though President Trump has talked about the importance of expanding broadband in rural areas, he has not committed any funding to help build networks. Instead, his efforts have been aimed at eliminating red tape and regulation to get infrastructure built.  

[Commentary] The solution to the country’s digital divide isn’t going to come from private-market competition, but rather from massive government mobilization. Just don’t call it “nationalization.”

Since its establishment in March 2011, the Federal Communications Commission Native Nations Communications Task Force has been composed of senior FCC staff and elected or appointed leaders from federally recognized Tribal governments or governmental entities, or their designated employees, and has helped the Commission fulfill its commitment to increasing broadband deployment and adoption on Tribal lands.  In view of the Task Force’s increasing involvement in a range of Commission matters and undertakings going beyond broadband deployment and adoption, the Commission, through its Office of

At the end of January, San Jose's (CA) Mayor, Sam Liccardo, brought the issue of the digital divide fight into the open, publicly resigning from a Federal Communications Commission committee tasked with recommending ways to speed up broadband deployment. "I concluded that there is no will from this FCC or from this committee to put the lip service about bridging the digital divide into action," Mayor Liccardo said. "And I decided it was time to stop participating in this charade that there was a legitimate voice for local communities at this table."

[Commentary] If tech companies start to include seniors in their business models from the start, they will find a significant upside. Seniors are a vast and underserved market. If technology becomes friendlier to the whole population, especially the booming numbers of older Americans, companies will find their business landscapes expanding along with their consumer base. Everyone will benefit from having happy, healthy, active grandparents — not least of all, grandparents themselves.