Connection Lost:
Why We Need to Bridge America’s Digital Divide and How to Do It
It is difficult to imagine life without the internet, especially in these uncertain times. Mass e-communication platforms such as Zoom now find themselves as bastions of social life, preserving human interaction in the wake of shelter in place orders across the nation. As businesses, government agencies, universities, and even the cast of Saturday Night Live transition to the digital world, it seems as if every facet of life is migrating exclusively to the internet. However, our pandemic-driven dependency on the web has raised serious equity concerns regarding the country’s digital divide.
Disproportionate internet access in the United States was already a concern before COVID-19. A report published in 2017 by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee found that nearly 12 million children do not live in homes with a broadband connection, placing them at a higher risk of falling behind in school. The study concluded that factors such as race and economic status have significant impacts on broadband accessibility. In the United States, African American (70%), Hispanic (74%) and Indigenous (65%) residents are less likely to have fixed broadband internet speed at home compared to White residents (82%). Additionally, less than half of households with incomes under $20,000 reported having a broadband subscription compared to the 92% of households with incomes over $75,000.
America’s digital divide is further exacerbated by distorted estimates from federal agencies. According to the latest report issued in 2017 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 21 million Americans lack broadband internet service. However, the FCC’s calculation methods have been widely criticized as severely under-counting the true number of Americans left offline.
The core issue with how federal data is collected: the FCC counts entire census blocks as internet-covered if at least one home within it has been serviced by an internet service provider (ISP). Therefore, the FCC can use the data to create a narrative suggesting that internet accessibility in United States is growing, while ignoring the worsening divide of disadvantaged communities lacking basic broadband. This past February, an internet accessibility advocacy organization known as Broadband Now released their own report responding to the 2017 FCC estimates. Their study deployed more accurate measurements of home broadband connection, concluding that the true number of Americans lacking online access was actually closer to 42 million — twice the number reported by the FCC.
To add insult to injury, the folks that can afford broadband service are drastically overpaying for a subpar product. According to the FCC’s latest International Broadband Data Report, the quality of internet service that Americans receive, compared to the monthly rates they pay, is among the worst in the developed world. The United States currently places 21st out of the 29 countries in the report’s Fixed Broadband Price Index, which ranks countries by internet download speeds and their average monthly rates. To help put this into perspective, American consumers paid an average of $66.17 a month in 2017 for one of the slowest internet download speeds on the planet, while consumers in South Korea received the fastest internet in the world for less than $30 a month.
Improving this country’s broadband infrastructure and offering affordable, reliable, and high-quality internet service to all Americans should be at the forefront of any relief package, especially in the wake of this global pandemic. Extending broadband to all Americans has the potential to improve local economic development, public health, public education, and even our electrical grids. It is deeply concerning that the internet service sector in the United States is a loosely regulated oligopoly, with no obligations to provide reliable and quality internet service to the millions of Americans that currently live in the digital dark. In fact, ISP lobbying efforts have made it extremely difficult, if not illegal, for cities in 22 States to offer alternative broadband services. Improving our broadband not only would make the United States more competitive on the global stage but would also drastically increase American quality of life at home. To reach that goal, we should do the following:
· Declare the internet as a public utility. Today, reliable internet access is arguably just as important to survival as water and electricity, as our world becomes more and more digital. Both local and federal agencies should mandate that all ISP’s be required to provide high-quality internet at realistic, affordable rates.
· Allow all cities across the United States to offer local municipal internet speed alternatives to increase competition and lower rates for consumers. It is in the nation’s best interest that all citizens are connected to the internet because of the potential economic benefits that come from a fully integrated digital economy. Equal access to broadband creates a level playing field for small businesses to compete in the digital economy and provides a healthy economic environment for start-ups to enter local markets. In return for this service, cities receive the benefit of an additional revenue stream and can utilize their high-quality broadband as a valuable amenity to attract new firms.
· Fund national public works projects to build out our national broadband infrastructure. With millions of Americans unemployed from COVID-19, there is a huge opportunity for the US to create the world’s most sophisticated public broadband system. We can help mitigate the effects of the coming recession by putting people to work and positioning ourselves to be a technological powerhouse when the pandemic eventually recedes.
· Incentivize both local electric co-ops and investor-driven utility companies to extend broadband service to both rural and urban disadvantaged communities. It is in the best interest of electricity providers and their customers to offer strong and reliable broadband. Upgraded broadband systems allows for improved two-way communication between electricity providers and smart appliances improving the efficiency of America’s electrical grid operations. These savings can be passed down to rate payers, along with other positive externalities such as cleaner air quality due to more efficient energy production.
The internet is truly the one resource that has the capacity to include every person in this country. Whether the internet should be completely funded and managed by the federal government is open to debate, but if the President of the most powerful nation on Earth is advocating bleach as the panacea for COVID-19, creating millions of well-paying jobs to deliver high-speed internet to every single American doesn’t seem all that far-fetched.
