Don’t replace the digital divide with the “not good enough divide”

COVID-19 demonstrated the need for speed in digital broadband connections. As more and more members of a household were online simultaneously doing schoolwork or working from home, the need for bandwidth increased. It is for this, and many other reasons, that the broadband infrastructure program being considered by Congress must prioritize spending public funds for high-speed service, not simply good-enough service. At a time when commercial broadband companies are investing private money in upgrading their networks to mega-high-speed broadband deployment, it is foolhardy for the government to spend public money for second class service.The nation is finally moving beyond talking about the digital divide to actually doing something about the problem, and it is illogical to spend the taxpayers’ dollars for something that will only open the possibility of a “not good enough divide” as demand continues to rise. If there is anything we have learned from the history of broadband, it is that what may be adequate for today is not adequate for tomorrow. The lesson of the internet has always been increasing demand. 

[Tom Wheeler is a visiting fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution, and was Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission from 2013 to 2017.]