Broadband Policy, Deployment, and Access: Lessons for New York State

University of Virginia Professor Christopher Ali spoke about rural broadband with the Reimagine New York Commission. The rural-urban digital divide is primarily one of infrastructure. At least 22.3% of rural Americans, or 15.8 million people, lack access to broadband infrastructure and are therefore cut off from the internet. More robust estimates suggest that this number is probably double. About 18% of rural students do not have access to the internet and 24% of rural residents say broadband access is a major issue in their community. While 15 million rural Americans lack access, even more are considered underserved, meaning that they may have access to the internet, but it is not at the speeds or latency that we would consider broadband, or better yet, what Former General Counsel for the FCC, Jonathan Sallet, calls “high performance broadband.” What is more, rural Americans pay more for their broadband – upwards of 37% more than urban Americans, and usually for slower speeds. In urban America, the digital divide is less about infrastructure and more about affordability. In addition to geography and class, digital divides are also defined by race.  According to the Pew Research Center, 34% of Black adults do not have a home broadband connection and 39% of Latinx adults do not have a home broadband connection. According to the US Census Bureau, 47% of those on Tribal lands do not have a home broadband connection. The digital divide is also not just about the infrastructure and income haves and have not, but about skills, usage, and motivation – this is encompassed in the term “digital inclusion.”