More than 9 million students still don’t have the high-speed home Internet required for online learning. One hopes the recent attention on the home Internet digital divide will be a call to action for our government and society that results in real change. But given that we can’t look to the telecom industry to solve this problem, what can be done?

I thought that I’d spend my time this morning talking about how the Federal Communications Commission has responded to COVID-19 and some of the lessons we’ve learned.  The FCC doesn’t just want to encourage private industry to better serve the public, we want to free them to expand and enhance their networks. That’s why we’ve moved aggressively to cut through red tape that often prevents or delays innovative solutions to consumers’ problems. 

Approximately 1,900 individuals and organizations wrote to Congress endorsing draft legislation to connect students and library patrons at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The draft proposal, the “Remote Learning During COVID-19 Act,” would appropriate $5.25 billion to an emergency fund to connect the millions of families who don’t have internet at home.

In sent a letter to Congressional leadership on behalf of our 200+ member municipalities, Next Century Cities said that since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the United States, Americans have faced profound disruptions and been inundated with illustrations of why broadband is essential. Aside from schools and businesses having to embrace digital platforms, local governments found a way to stay operable while providing real-time health and safety updates for their residents in the face of a national emergency.

As Virginians have been adapting to a new way of life during the coronavirus outbreak, high-speed internet access has become a necessity, now more than ever. The coronavirus emergency has only exacerbated the burden of internet insecurity and the consequences of inadequate access for rural Americans. That is why, in April, I wrote a letter to House and Senate leadership advocating for the inclusion of rural connectivity capabilities in future coronavirus stimulus packages, including key legislation that I have put forward in Congress. In March, I introduced the Serving Rural America Act.

The Federal Communications Commission approved an additional 67 funding applications for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program. Health care providers in both urban and rural areas of the country will use this $20.18 million in funding to provide telehealth services during the coronavirus pandemic. To date, the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program, which was authorized by the CARES Act, has approved funding for 305 health care providers in 42 states plus Washington, D.C. for a total of $104.98 million in funding. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrating the critical need for communications connectivity, local governments are striving to improve local broadband service and fill broadband service gaps. At the same time, localities may be able to generate much-needed revenue from broadband and telecommunication assets they already own, including towers, fiber optics, rooftops, conduit, and poles.  Indeed, many cash-strapped communities possess a range of assets, including fiber strands and tower and conduit space, that have spare capacity and could be maximized.

Native Americans who live in the Navajo Nation along the remote borders of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico often have a lack of running water, limited Internet access, and now soaring cases of covid-19.

Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks has created the Digital Opportunity Equity Recognition (DOER) Program to commend organizations, institutions, companies and individuals who, through their actions and responses to the COVID-19 crisis, have helped to make quality affordable broadband service available to unserved or underserved communities.

America took an involuntary crash course in remote learning. With the school year now winding down, the grade from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in: It was a failure. School districts closed campuses in March in response to the coronavirus pandemic and, with practically no time at all for planning or training, launched a grand experiment to educate more than 50 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade using technology. The problems began piling up almost immediately. There were students with no computers or internet access.