Cisco's Kevin Wollenweber has turned into a COVID-19 sleuth of sorts over the past few weeks as he tracks the virus' impact on service provider networks via some of the major internet peering exchanges. Overall, Wollenweber, Cisco's vice president of service provider networking, said the world's networks are handling the increased traffic related to the coronavirus outbreak well.

Many advocates are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to significantly expand its Lifeline program. More than 250 organizations called on the FCC to provide low-income households with unlimited talk and text plans. The groups have also asked the agency to create an emergency broadband benefit that would provide eligible households with $50 per month to cover the cost of high-speed internet connections, where they are available. Eric Null, US Policy Manager at Access Now, argues that the FCC should ensure the Lifeline program lives up to its name during this time.

While much of the US hunkers down to work and shop online, large swaths of the country are trying to cope without an internet connection, leaving millions of households cut off from vital services and information during the pandemic. Here’s what the digital divide looks like across the U.S. In counties with the deepest shade of orange, half of households don’t have access to the internet.

How are networks are holding up in the top 200 cities? We’ve compared the median download speeds internet users have been experiencing for the week of March 15th – March 21st to the range of speeds experienced in prior weeks of 2020. Key findings:

The Federal Communications Commission issued a temporary waiver of its access arbitrage rules to Inteliquent, a telecommunications company that carries traffic for two of the nation’s largest conference calling providers, Zoom Video Communications and Cisco WebEx. Absent this waiver, the massive increase in conference calls made by American consumers using Zoom and WebEx to work and attend classes from home during the COVID-19 pandemic would likely result in Inteliquent being deemed an “access-stimulating” carrier under the FCC’s rules.

The Federal Communications Commission granted temporary spectrum access to 33 wireless Internet service providers serving 330 counties in 29 states to help them serve rural communities facing an increase in broadband needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Special Temporary Authority (STA) allows these companies to use the lower 45 megahertz of spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band for 60 days.

Not everyone in the US has internet access. There are more than 14 million people without any internet access and 25 million without the faster and more reliable broadband access, according to a 2018 Federal Communications Commission study. And that may actually be an undercount. The FCC data is based on census blocks and not households.

On March 5 and 6, Sen Maria Cantwell (D-WA) wrote to the Federal Communications Commission to urge it to consider how the FCC's existing authority and programs, as well as temporary policies or rule waivers, may be used to secure the nation's safety and continued well-being. On March 20, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai responded by listing the steps the FCC has taken to protect its employees, monitor communications networks, and provide support to keep Americans connected. 

The Federal Communications Commission took a number of actions to assist Rural Health Care Program participants, including extending the Rural Health Care Program application window until June 30, 2020, among other administrative deadlines. March 26’s actions are part of the FCC’s ongoing efforts to ensure that hospitals and health care providers have the resources they need to effectively respond to the coronavirus pandemic and keep Americans connected to critical services.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has forced schools and workplaces to close all over the country, tens of millions of American children have started to attend classes online and tens of millions of American adults are now teleworking from home. This crisis has highlighted how many Americans lack high-speed wired broadband internet at home (approximately 141 million) and specifically how many school-age children are disconnected (as many as 12 million). This digital divide did not happen by accident.