Pursuing digital equity

1 in 13 American households have no access to broadband.

Broadband access has become one of the key utilities needed for participating in employment, health care, education, and civic life. While the vast majority of people in the United States have sufficient internet to take part in digital life, roughly 10 million households don’t have access to reasonable-quality broadband. (Defined as 100-megabits/sec download speeds.) 

The problems

Low-density geographies

The farther houses are from each other, the more expensive it is to link those households to the internet using fiber optic cables. In many rural areas, the houses that have any access to the internet rely on copper wire, which limits internet speed to a few megabits per second.

Low-income neighborhoods

Many residents of poorer neighborhoods live just a few feet from fiber optic cable that could offer high-speed internet, but the wiring in older buildings can’t support the connection. Landlords and internet providers often have little incentive to upgrade interior infrastructure.

Random local variation

Over the past 20 years, some communities have benefitted from government grants to build infrastructure. Other communities haven’t been successful. Those local histories have resulted in quite a bit of variation among communities.

The solutions

Funding

The federal government continues to play an important role in paying for infrastructure in places where private investors don’t see a good opportunity for profit. Most recently, the Infrastructure and Jobs Act provided more than $42 billion to deploy broadband to almost every unserved and underserved location in the United States and U.S. territories. We don’t know precisely how much it will cost until contractors start bidding on the projects, but it’s at least possible that it’s enough money to get broadband to almost every location in the country.

Technology

Fiber technology has been around many years and hasn’t changed dramatically, but broadband deployment has gotten easier because of advancements in components like long-range lasers and cheaper electronics. Despite those improvements, running fiber to houses in extremely low-density areas is still extremely expensive. For example, it could easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to connect a small cluster of homes that’s ten miles from the nearest town.

We now have two additional means of providing broadband access to the most remote homes. Low-Earth orbiting satellites, like Starlink Amazon’s Kuipiter, are showing promise. A technology called “fixed wireless” uses antennas and radio transmitters to connect homes to the internet via a tower located on a nearby hill or mountain.

The Ultimate Goal

Broadband deployment is only one part of the larger problem of digital equity. Many who theoretically have access to high-speed broadband don’t have the money to pay for access or the digital literacy to make use of it. It’s essential to consider issues of equity, particularly for low-income households. 

The Federal Communications Commission operates the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides low-income households a $30 subsidy so they can purchase internet access — often at $0. Unfortunately, that COVID-era program may run out of funding unless Congress authorizes more funding. 

It’s more than just deploying fiber, fixed wireless, and satellite. We have to make it possible for families to actually afford broadband access, get the devices they need to use it, and in some cases receive training necessary to make good use of it.

Henning Schulzrinne is the Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Mathematical Methods and Computer Science and Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia Engineering and an affiliate of the Data Science Institute. He currently serves as a broadband advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce and previously served as chief technology officer for the Federal Communications Commission.