From Coast to Coast, States Partner With Community Networks to Deploy Emergency Hotspots

As the novel coronavirus has spread across the United States, so too have efforts to bring Internet access to digitally disconnected households during a time of nationwide social distancing. Washington and Massachusetts are on different coasts, but both states are working with publicly owned broadband networks to deploy emergency Wi-Fi hotspots in underserved communities in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Officials in both Washington and Massachusetts acknowledge that the new Wi-Fi hotspots are emergency efforts to provide connectivity during the pandemic and that more needs to be done to close the digital divide.