Broadband as Civic Infrastructure: Community Empowerment, Equity, and a Digital New Deal

Source: German Marshall Fund of the United States

By: John B. Horrigan, Jorge Reina Schement

The coronavirus pandemic has shined a spotlight on equity issues in communications policy. As policymakers turn their attention to digital equity, they can build upon community-driven digital equity initiatives that have been developed in the past decade.

These initiatives offer the cornerstone of a Digital New Deal that aims to ensure that digital tools foster democratic values and participation. Numerous cities and communities are seeking to shape the fit of broadband into their civic infrastructures. In this context, federally imposed restraints on communities must change to allow local governments to shape their broadband futures.

Integrating broadband into civic infrastructure calls for planning and financing across levels of government, as well as coordination with the private sector in order to ensure that digital tools are available and affordable to address community needs. Supporting the role of broadband in civic infrastructure can turn the stimulus generated by the coronavirus crisis into an enduring force to address digital equity.

Unequal access to broadband Internet threatens to undermine the ability of Americans to participate in their economy, their communities, and in their democracy. Without change in this regard, the country will have a difficult time rebuilding after the coronavirus pandemic, especially when confronting long-standing shortfalls in economic fairness and social justice. At a time when the nation faces a crisis of commitment to social and physical infrastructure, access to broadband carries the potential to create opportunities for individuals and communities.

Broadband has become an essential element in the building of civic infrastructure. The movement in this direction can be seen in community-driven initiatives—often at the neighborhood level—that seek to improve the broadband environment for citizens. Examples include initiatives to increase the number of people with high-quality home Internet service and computing devices. The movement promotes the development of alternative networks to open up new and more affordable ways for Internet access. These efforts also contribute to community spirit that builds social capital through the provision of digital skills training and tech support by community anchor institutions such as public libraries. Collectively, these initiatives are part of the building blocks for a Digital New Deal. By addressing equity issues in broadband consumer adoption and network deployment, digital technologies can be a force to combat misinformation and improve civic outcomes.

These are more than a collection of diffuse undertakings. Broadband and civic infrastructure initiatives amount to a new communications policy compact, one that should guide policymakers. It calls for:

A stronger role by the federal government in the financing of broadband for public purposes, with a strong commitment to oversight, enforcement, and assessment of progress toward goals for community connectivity.
Ensuring that states have the capacity for broadband planning and the means to deliver services on digital platforms.
Building local capabilities for serving citizens’ needs for digital skills training, tech support, and information literacy.