Why the federal government needs to step up efforts to close the rural broadband divide

Report #1 of the Rural Broadband Equity Project | The Infrastructure Investment Bill and American Jobs Act (IIJA), passed in 2021, dedicates $65 billion for broadband funding and activities that close the digital divide. The monies are primarily being provided to states, localities and tribal communities who will determine how to allocate funding locally around the IIJA’s aspirational statutory goals. However, widespread data on where broadband assets exist throughout the U.S. are not widely available, leaving many states to creatively justify their use of federal funding. Without accurate depictions and data on how residents in rural, urban, and tribal lands are adversely impacted by the lack of available and sufficient high-speed broadband, certain populations will be left without sufficient online connectivity and remain on the wrong side of digital opportunities, particularly those populations already impacted by a range of historic and systemic inequalities throughout America’s rural South and Black Belt regions.  Read more…