Twenty-five years ago, when I headed up the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), my colleagues and I identified what has come to be known as the digital divide while researching the growing gap between the haves and have-nots of internet access. Back then, we never dreamed that the U.S. government would one day commit $42 billion dollars to close the divide we uncovered. Today, 30 years after the advent of the Internet age, the Biden administration and Congress have provided the focus and the funds we need to get every American online. However, we are at risk of squandering this once-in-a-generation opportunity.
“We’ve been working to bring reliable internet to our community so all children can share the opportunities of their peers and all businesses have the connectivity they need to succeed. When we heard about this program, we thought it was the answer we’d been looking for. But the more we learn, the more we see the program’s rules will keep us from taking part,” says Dr. Ambrosio Hernandez, the mayor of Pharr, a small city on the South Texas border which, when the pandemic hit, was one of the least connected places in the U.S. The town is in Hidalgo County, a persistent poverty region that’s over 90% Latino and where almost half of families lack a home internet subscription. It’s exactly the kind of community the Biden Administration’s signature broadband investment was made to serve.
