Digital Divide

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced it has awarded a $500,000 grant to build out high-speed Internet infrastructure in Healy Lake Village in Fairbanks (AK). The grant, awarded under the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, is part of President Biden's commitment to ensuring everyone in America has access to reliable, affordable, high-speed internet.

Digital skills – the skills associated with technology that enable users to find, evaluate, organize, create, and communicate information – are ubiquitous throughout the workforce. Today’s changing labor market indicates that there is a critical need for action to ensure all workers gain the skills needed to meaningfully participate in work and life. The Digital Equity Act (DEA), a provision within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, includes a historic federal investment to promote digital equity, literacy, and inclusion.

The University of Pittsburgh hosted the 2022 Pennsylvania Broadband Symposium in April 2022 alongside state and regional partners to discuss challenges and strategize solutions around expanding broadband internet access in the state.

The director of the Department of Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund for broadband expansion projects in response to the coronavirus pandemic said that most dispensed funds will ultimately go towards fiber broadband projects. The Capital Projects Fund was established from the reserve of $10 billion dedicated to capital projects enabling work, education and health monitoring when President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was passed in March 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for high-speed internet access in Americans’ homes and elevated debate about the cost and affordability of connections and devices. Congress responded with emergency measures designed to keep households online.

The Media, Inequality & Change (MIC) Center at the University of Pennsylvania occupies the intersection of technology, policy, and social justice. It is committed to studying the political economy of social problems, media, and democracy, while engaging local activist projects, and drawing connections with national and international social movements. The US continues to suffer under a decades-old digital divide that disproportionately harms marginalized communities, especially communities of color and poor households.

As Rappahannock County approaches a decision point on participating in an ambitious eight-county high-speed broadband plan, advocates might pause to salute two events that make the milestone project possible: the outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2020 and the resulting passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021. The virus shone a spotlight on the digital divide that leaves many Americans without fast and reliable internet service.

Deputy Secretary Graves met with the Governor of Puerto Rico Pedro Pierluisi, in addition to a wide range of local leaders and stakeholders, to discuss how the federal government and Puerto Rico can work together to advance a shared economic development agenda in partnership with the people of Puerto Rico. Together, they met with public and private groups to discuss challenges and recommendations for economic growth on the island.

There is no silver bullet to the complex economic, cultural, technical and policy barriers to bringing more of the world’s citizens online. Advocates of expanding internet use say that being connected is an economic engine and increasingly a necessity of modern life. An internet connection is also a minimum condition for internet companies to reach potential customers.