Opening the Broadband Access Paradox

Amid all its other shocks and stresses, the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced a largely forgotten, complex debate that lurks in the background of our public conversation about big tech. Access to reliable broadband internet service became the factor determining who could work from home—and who could learn, see a doctor, visit with friends and family, go to church, or shop from home. It became clear that basic access to education relied on this one weird problem: the so-called digital divide between internet haves and have-nots that decades of advocacy and investment had failed to fi x. Suddenly, the world was reminded that lots and lots of people—about half of those in developing countries and up to a quarter in some developed countries—do not have access to, or cannot aff ord, reliable broadband service and internet-enabled devices.1 Moreover, the 25 percent of US residents without broadband access are already experiencing other kinds of structural inequity. These are racialized, minoritized, and low-income groups, the same who were disproportionately exposed to the deprivations of COVID-19.2 During the pandemic, policymakers began to zero in on broadband internet as a critical component of stimulus relief. The CARES Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and various unnamed stimulus packages contained targeted spending allocations for broadband infrastructure