What 2020 Taught Us About Broadband

We’re not going back to broadband circa 2019. Every aspect of life is going to have a significant virtual component from here on. That’s the lesson we’ve learned in 2020 about the use of broadband networks by people in their homes. Residential broadband access has become crucial to work and learn, to schedule and attend remote visits with a doctor, and to remain connected with family and friends—especially with multiple members of the household online at the same time. And Americans recognize this need: A Pew research study found that 87% of Americans viewed the internet as essential or important during the pandemic. As Mike Lynch, the cable and broadband officer for the City of Boston, said earlier this year, “Everybody discovered over the last six months that connectivity is a must-have, and people who may not have been that interested or didn’t see the immediate need are now pressed into understanding that we have a need for connectivity.” We are living in a world where the pandemic required us to move our lives on the internet. Seemingly overnight, we had to learn how to do activities online that were previously performed overwhelmingly in person. With these new skills and a new environment in which participation in society is ever more reliant on broadband, change will certainly come to all manner of pursuits. This new dynamic translates into greater need, but also greater opportunity. Having been forced to use broadband more than in the past, people have learned how to videoconference and, in general, be better at what they do online. That experience, and the continuing challenges of a post-crisis world, will bend the curve of broadband usage upward. Greater demand for services over broadband networks offers the prospect of better supply of broadband-enabled services, which will, in turn, attract greater demand. That’s what positive feedback loops create: a dynamic system of mutually reinforcing improvement.