Over three characteristically chilly days in the middle of February in Philadelphia, around 1,300 people from local and state governments, public advocacy groups, and community organizations gathered in conference rooms to hear the latest about digital inclusion.
The annual Net Inclusion conference, which aims to ensure everyone has access to digital technologies and services needed to engage with modern society, grew its attendance since last year.
But looming above all of it was the impending end of the Affordable Connectivity Program: a government-funded internet subsidy that had already done much toward the conference’s goals.
Digital inclusion and equity are among several entangled issues that need to be solved in order to give millions of people in the US access to high-speed internet as well as the education they need to take full advantage of it.
The $90 billion in Congressional funding is split between various projects to improve infrastructure, affordability and educaiton.
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Finally time to fix the digital divide
Some of the $90 billion has already been spent, but the largest chunk is waiting to be assigned state-by-state, providing a once-in-a-lifetime pile of money dedicated to solving a difficult problem with many thorny issues and piecemeal solutions.
In addition to advising the White House on telecom policies, the NTIA is responsible for doling out the portion of the Infrastructure Bill assigned to improve connectivity. Along with funding from the ARPA bill, Davidson and the agency are confident that this money will fix the digital divide and connect every American to high-speed broadband internet. The pressure is on to turn this rare financial windfall into a success story for America’s internet.
“We know we will not get this kind of funding again,” Davidson said.
The money from both bills is divided among different programs that divvy up funding for specific purposes — some for physical infrastructure like laying fiber cable, others for increasing affordability or educating the public on how broadband can improve their lives. Most of the money won’t finish filtering out for years to come. Still, it’s a roadmap for when some Americans may finally get broadband internet.
“The president has given us a very simple but ambitious mission to connect everyone in America with reliable, affordable high-speed internet service. We will reach that goal by the end of this decade,” Davidson said.
Net Inclusion 2024 was put on by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, an association dedicated to improving broadband access through advocacy and policy. Its founder and executive director, Angela Siefer, laid out a bullish agenda to get the private sector, broadband industry, philanthropists and governments to contribute more to digital equity with the assertion that a connected and online-savvy workforce benefits all. And getting there requires more than just laying more fiber.
“Sometimes there’s a misunderstanding that if we just build more broadband networks, we will bridge the digital divide,” Siefer said. “We have digital divides in the United States that are not connected to whether or not the actual fiber and towers exist in your community, but rather, your digital skills and the device you have and your ability to afford broadband service.”
Siefer and her association want to put funding from the $2.75 billion Digital Equity Act to work. The DEA requires every state to have its own plan for addressing affordability and education, which Siefer believes served as a wake-up call for states from funders, philanthropists, local governments and industry members about digital equity. Years on, we’ll look back and see how significant this feedback’s impact was, she said.
