Biden’s infrastructure plan calls for $ 100 billion to fix high-speed internet

President Biden’s $ 2 trillion U.S. Jobs Plan’s infrastructure proposal used a broader definition of infrastructure that most people tend to associate with the word. It took everything from roads, pipes and electricity to climate change, union jobs and inequality.

It has also provided $ 100 billion to America’s digital infrastructure, with the ambitious goal of giving all Americans the affordable and reliable high-speed internet access they need to participate in today’s economy. hui. The plan is lacking in details at the moment, but the vast majority of that money will be spent building high-speed broadband connections for the millions of Americans who still don’t have them. There are also provisions relating to the promotion of competition and the reduction of prices. Biden called broadband internet “the new electricity,” likening the need for a federal initiative to bring it to all Americans to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936.

If you’ve been paying attention, Biden’s focus on bridging the digital divide shouldn’t come as a surprise. He called for “universal broadband” during his campaign in his Build Back Better plan. He appointed Jessica Rosenworcel, who as commissioner of the FCC has championed affordable broadband internet for years, as interim chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Rosenworcel’s response to Biden’s plan, by the way? “I bet everything.”

But it’s also a huge and complicated undertaking that America has been trying to accomplish for years, under three (now four) presidencies. The exact number of Americans who do not have access to broadband infrastructure varies depending on several factors, including which cards you use to count them and what your definition of reliable broadband internet is. Biden put the number at 30 million. And that number doesn’t include the millions of Americans who have broadband internet access but can’t afford it, making that access meaningless.

The issue of affordability became all the more evident and problematic during the pandemic. Lawmakers had to scramble to help low-income people access the internet through various subsidies and stimulus bills, while the FCC essentially had to beg internet service providers not to cut Americans off if they could. not pay their Internet bills. These aren’t permanent fixes, however, and they still weren’t enough for some. Biden’s plan also wants to help these people.

“When I say affordable, I mean it,” Biden said in a speech announcing the plan. “Americans are paying too much.”

Supporters of universal broadband access and affordability praised the plan.

“This is a serious effort to achieve digital equity for all Americans, tackle overpriced internet service, and implement greater transparency and accountability,” said Willmary Escoto of the digital rights association Access. Now to Recode. “The United States Jobs Plan moves the United States forward into a new digital future, where every individual in America has a fair chance at success.”

Gigi Sohn, a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Institute for Technology Law & Policy, said in a statement that Biden’s plan was remarkable not only in its ambition but also in “ the message it sends – that broadband, like the electricity, is a necessity, and that we cannot participate in our economy, in our education and health care systems and in our society without it … The United States cannot afford to to be a country of the digital haves and have-nots.

President Biden’s $ 100 billion infrastructure plan recognizes an important fact about broadband today: it is an essential service, like water and electricity, and our public policy should reflect this fact. Greg Guice, director of government affairs at the open Internet advocacy group Public Knowledge, said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the administration and members of Congress as they seek to push through this bold initiative to bridge the digital divide.”

The fact sheet released by the Biden administration doesn’t go into specifics beyond saying how much money Biden wants to invest and, in general, what he hopes the return on that investment will be: access “future-proof” broadband broadband nationwide; increased competition among providers, including municipal-owned plans and cooperatives; and reduced costs.

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said that the Biden Plan was based on the Internet Accessible and Affordable for All Act, which she and Representative Jim Clyburn (D-SC) brought into their respective homes last year and reintroduced last month.

This bill gives $ 80 billion to broadband infrastructure, requires service providers who use networks built on that infrastructure to offer affordable service plans, and provides an additional $ 6 billion to the broadband benefits program. emergency for broadband. It will also make it easier for local governments, public-private partnerships and cooperatives to create their own networks that could compete with traditional for-profit service providers – who in many areas remain the only real option for consumers.

“The coronavirus pandemic has exposed and exacerbated many long-standing flaws that must be fixed if America is to maintain its greatness,” Clyburn told Recode. “In addition to fixing many of our nation’s flaws, the US Jobs Plan wisely protects against the emergence of more flaws in the future.”

Anna Read, senior researcher with the Broadband Access Initiative at Pew Charitable Trusts, told Recode that the federal government should look to state and local broadband access programs, which Read says , will be the key to implementing Biden’s vision.

“States have really been at the forefront on this issue over the past few years,” Read said. “They have invested significant sums in the state and expanded broadband access. … Increasingly, states are beginning to address affordability as well. “

While the Biden plan promises a lot, delivering it will be another matter. Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump all had lofty goals to connect America. None of them delivered, and millions of Americans paid the price for that failure when the pandemic revealed how far behind America was.

Scott Wallsten, president and senior researcher of the Technology Policy Institute, said there were too many unknowns at this point to say whether Biden’s plan would be the one to reverse this trend. After all, if getting everyone in America online had been easy, it would have already been done. He hopes the plan involves experimentation and analysis to see where and why people don’t go online, rather than just throwing money at a problem and assuming that will fix it. He sees a lot of places where it could go wrong or be wasteful, but he said there was also reason to be optimistic.

“What I find good is that people are really paying attention to the digital divide and its consequences in a way that they never were before,” said Wallsten. “We see the problems and the inequalities and what can result … I think, for once, these people are really visible.”

“It’s a big infrastructure challenge, but it’s also a affordability challenge,” Read said. “Addressing the two in tandem will be very important in bridging the digital divide.”

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