A Q&A with John Horrigan, senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute.

A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers, including Sens Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), is allocating $10 billion for broadband connectivity as part of its $908 billion emergency relief plan.

Comcast will subject all its residential broadband customers to a 1.2 terabyte monthly data cap. The threshold that Comcast will start enforcing does, indeed, allow for a lot of online life before getting socked by surcharges of $10 for each extra 50 GB, up to $100 a month.

Providing reliable, high-speed internet to remote parts of the U.S. has been a challenge for years. And the COVID-19 pandemic has created a renewed sense of urgency to solve it. Finally solving America’s digital divide will depend on either a technological innovation or governmental intervention.

The Covid-19 lockdowns were expected to push the resilience of broadband and mobile networks to the limit. With millions of people suddenly working from home, it was widely expected that telecoms companies would struggle to keep everyone connected, particularly in countries where full-fibre broadband levels are low and 5G upgrades remain a distant prospect. Yet networks mostly held firm as minor outages and service difficulties such as jerky Zoom calls proved surmountable for most workers, children and furloughed staff stuck at home.

Several of Wyoming’s local fiber and cable-based broadband providers recently brought to my attention legitimate concerns that their high-speed broadband networks are likely to be overbuilt by competitors receiving CARES Act grants being distributed through the Wyoming Business Council’s (WBC) Connect Wyoming program.

Closing the digital divide will be a high priority for the Biden administration, as the pandemic has exposed how many Americans still lack reliable in-home internet connections and the devices needed to work and learn remotely. Much of the responsibility for addressing that gap will fall to the Federal Communications Commission, which is certain to make the effort its first priority. The FCC's gears don't move fast enough to flood the country with dollars for broadband on Biden's day one.

In the summer of 2020, the Hamilton County (TN) public school system – which encompasses the city of Chattanooga – announced it would be providing high-speed internet access to families with students on free or reduced lunch plans through a program called EdConnect. The service is funded through the next ten years, the school board says, meaning the free high-speed internet should well outlast the pandemic.

Nov 18th, 2020 marked 3900 days since the Federal Communications Commission launched its heavily-hyped "National Broadband Plan." 400 days ago, I penned an op-ed for the Benton Institute which assessed how the FCC had been unable to achieve any of the benchmarks or meet any of the six stated goals of the plan. You probably won’t be surprised to hear that another year didn’t fix very much of the shortcomings I identified then.

With nearly 1,000 rural Latino communities spread across the country, rural internet access has long been a priority for Latinos. But the past eight months have created a new sense of urgency. Recently, 19 national organizations representing communities of color, many of them Latino, recently petitioned the Federal Communications Commission.  While the details are complicated, the outcome is not: expanding high-speed internet would be faster and more affordable, benefitting Latino families in rural communities across America.