The First Congressional Hearing Explores Digital Inclusion Efforts and Internet Adoption

As federal, state, and local leaders increasingly recognize the need to make Internet access universal, they are also realizing that adoption is a separate issue. Programs such as the ReConnect and Connect America Funds I and II Auction have helped to expand infrastructure, but even in places where Internet access has been available for years, 100 percent of households do not subscribe. In an effort to better understand digital equity, the House Subcommittee on Communications & Technology of the Committee on Energy and Commerce recently sat down to listen to experts on digital equity. They discussed common misconceptions, hurdles that make wide-scale adoption difficult, and offered policy recommendations to help us achieve digital equity.

Not Only a Rural Problem

Angela Siefer, Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) described how her experience as a digital equity warrior has changed from working with people to learn the basics of computer use to the additional problem of helping people get online. Angela’s statement addressed some of the most common myths associated with the digital divide that NDIA, through boots-on-the-ground research, has discovered, including:

The digital divide is a rural problem: Census results show that populations in urban areas do not have Internet access subscriptions of any kind; these are often low-income households.

5G will bridge the digital divide: Lack of infrastructure and devices deployed in areas where existing problems with digital inclusion continue with regards to this new technology.

People don’t subscribe because they don’t think the Internet isn’t valuable: Accomplishing day-to-day tasks often require access to the Internet, which is a fact not lost on those who don’t subscribe, but the cost is out of reach for many of those same people.

Read Angela’s statement here [PDF].

Local Communities Have the Key, But Need a Little Help

Joshua D. Edmonds, the Director of Digital Inclusion from the City of Detroit, discussed how the city has implemented local initiatives to improve adoption. He explained how Detroit has tried to leverage partnerships with Internet access companies and other entities in order to find ways for low-income residents to obtain devices and Internet access. The city has had success without federal funding, but Edmonds writes in his testimony that the goal of universal adoption is a goal that all levels of government need to share in order to be successful. While local leaders have the know-how, federal level suppert will help the programs continue:

These are examples of how local leadership has called on industry to fill in where the federal government is silent. In Detroit, we have developed public-private partnerships without any government funding, but it an unsustainable model. We need federal resources to continue our work. If we were to receive additional funding, we could do more robust outreach, and incentivize more localized funding from philanthropic organizations.

Edmonds also draws attention to the issues that Detroit shares with other cities, including the homework gap, cybersecurity, residents with disabilities, and the 2020 census.

Read his full testimony here [PDF].

Affordability and Local Solutions

Gigi Sohn, who used to work at the FCC and who is now a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown and a Senior Fellow and Public Advocate for the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society also recommended that Congress pass the Digital Equity Act of 2019. Like other testifiers, she noted that local communities have been developing programs to improve digital equity but that they need financial support from the federal government; infrastructure funding is only one piece of a complex adoption solution.