You Can’t Spell ‘Broadband’ Without ‘Accountability’

The share of U.S. adults using the internet has not grown significantly since 2013, according to the Pew Research Center. It’s a trend reflected in rural broadband subscription rates that continue to lag significantly behind rates in urban areas. The gigabit elephant in the room is the ridiculous amount we spend for broadband relative to the quality of services communities, especially rural areas, get. Federal agencies have been spending $6 billion per year since 2009 for rural broadband. Many of these federal grants have lax accountability penalties for internet service providers (ISPs) that fail to deliver what they promise. The fear among many people working for greater broadband access is that the accountability won’t get any better with the $65 billion just approved in the infrastructure spending law. Dr. Christopher Ali, an associate professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, said, “Forty-seven billion dollars was spent between 2009 and 2017 specifically towards rural broadband deployment. But the pandemic painfully and dramatically exposed the gaps in broadband connectivity. Farm operators who thought they were paying for a great broadband network found out that they couldn’t actually do multiple Zoom calls from home if they had multiple family members or business acquaintances working under the same roof.” Grants and subsidies can help correct rural broadband market failure, but only if winners are held accountable. Kathryn de Wit, project director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Broadband Access Initiative, considers accountability a critical element in achieving universal broadband access because accountability “ensure that projects deliver on their promise to address the digital divide.”