The Bipartisan Broadband Bill: Good, But It Won’t End the Digital Divide

The U.S. Senate is on the cusp of approving an infrastructure package, which passed a critical first vote last night by 67-32. Negotiations on the final bill are ongoing, but late yesterday NBC News had the draft broadband provisions. There is a lot to like in it, some of which will depend on decisions by the state governments and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and some drawbacks. Assuming that what was released makes it into the final bill, here is what to expect.

Not Enough Money to Close the Digital Divide Across the U.S.

We have long advocated for, backed up by evidence, a plan that would connect every American to fiber. It is a vital part of any nationwide communications policy that intends to actually function in the 21st century. The future is clearly heading towards more symmetrical uses, that will require more bandwidth at very low latency. Falling short of that will inevitably create a new digital divide, this one between those with 21st-century access and those without. Fiber-connected people will head towards the cheaper symmetrical multi-gigabit era while others are stuck on capacity-constrained expensive legacy wires. This “speed chasm” will create a divide between those who can participate in an increasingly remote, telecommuting world and those who cannot.

Most estimates put the price tag of universal fiber at $80 to $100 billion, but this bipartisan package proposes only $40 billion in total for construction. It’s pretty obvious that this shortfall will prevent many areas from the funding they need to deliver fiber–or really any broadband access—to the millions of Americans in need of access.

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