The pandemic laid the digital divide bare, but federal funding for new solutions could help us start to bridge the gap in 2022.
If the world wasn’t already dependent on the internet to keep us connected and to keep the global economy moving, two years of working, learning, shopping, socializing and entertaining ourselves at home have made that reality painfully clear. Even so, far too many of us remain stuck with sub-par options for getting online, a grave limitation on participation in this new cyber status quo.
The Federal Communications Commission estimates that more than 14 million Americans lack access to baseline broadband speeds, while the internet service-tracker BroadbandNow pegs the number at closer to 42 million. Meanwhile, Pew Research Data suggests that communities of color are disproportionately underserved, with 80% of White Americans reporting access to broadband speeds compared to 71% of Black Americans and 65% of Hispanic Americans. Quality connections are particularly scarce in rural regions with low population density, and it was often teachers, parents and students who felt the brunt of it as schools hit pause on in-person learning and printed assignments in favor of virtual classrooms and digital homework. It’s not just a lack of internet options — in many areas, the true challenge is a lack of options people can actually afford.
With the broadband gap laid bare by the events of 2020, 2021 saw a renewed focus on meeting the challenge once and for all. Telecom titans Verizon and T-Mobile began leveraging their mobile infrastructure to provide 5G home internet service in a growing list of select cities, while Elon Musk’s Starlink took to the skies with an ambitious goal of offering next-gen satellite internet connections across the globe. Meanwhile, the number of fiber internet providers continues to rise, with AT&T, CenturyLink, Windstream, and Ziply Fiber all registering double-digit increases in their respective shares of customers with access to fiber-optic connections over the last five years. Perhaps the most important development is November’s bipartisan passage of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which includes $65 billion in broadband funding.
