CEDC Roundtable: Pandemic Shows Need for Sustained Funding for Digital Access

Programs to promote broadband access need a sustainable, reliable source of funding beyond the current one-time federal infusion, and should partner with local community organizations to succeed, said panelists Thursday at the FCC Communications Equity and Diversity Council’s “Lessons Learned from the Pandemic” virtual roundtable. “We cannot fund [broadband access programs] only at one time, during a crisis,” said Ovidiu Viorica, who manages the broadband and technology program for the New Mexico Public School Facilities Authority. “We have to make the funding predictable, and continuous because that's what it's going to take.”

Thursday's event was the CEDC’s fourth and last under the current charter. The council’s final meeting under this charter will be in June. The FCC declined comment on whether the agency will recharter the group.

The COVID-19 pandemic “exposed the digital divide to the world,” and led to a huge effort toward broadband accessibility and digital skills training kick-started by federal broadband infrastructure dollars, said CEDC Chair Heather Gate at the start of the roundtable. For that to continue bearing fruit, those programs need dependable funding, said nearly every panelist at Thursday’s event. If libraries, community centers, and local community institutions are going to help in future disasters, “We need to think about building their capacity in for the long term to serve that role of connecting and building trust with local communities -- between emergencies,” said Greta Byrum, HR&A Advisors' principal-broadband and digital equity. If funding for such programs is allowed to lapse, even temporarily, it can kill their momentum or potentially leave community organizations on the hook for programs that are needed but no longer funded, said Byrum and Kids First Chicago Policy Chief Hal Woods.

Comcast and AT&T panelists also said it's important for the affordable connectivity program and other federal broadband infrastructure plans to continue. Only one-third of eligible households have signed up for the ACP, said Broderick Johnson, Comcast executive vice president-digital equity. “We would love to see the program continue beyond the forecasted end of program that many of us have been hearing rumors around,” said Anisa Green, AT&T director-federal regulatory. Federal dollars should be focused on the rural parts of the country where “deployment is lacking,” said Johnson.

Nearly every panelist Thursday repeatedly emphasized the importance of “anchor institutions” such as libraries and community centers in reaching out to those who need digital upskilling and broadband access. The pandemic lockdowns were “the pits” in the U.S. Virgin Islands partly because nearly all of those institutions had been destroyed before the pandemic by hurricanes Irma and Maria, said Virgin Islands Next Generation Network CEO Stephan Adams. Libraries, churches and similar institutions aren’t commonly thought of as digital equity organizations but are instrumental to that sort of work, said Byrum. They are “trusted organizations” that can help make sure digital accessibility efforts are customized to an individual community, said Norma Fernandez, CEO of EveryoneOn.

The pandemic also showed the importance of collecting data on the effectiveness of efforts to combat the digital divide, said Annette Taylor, director-Office of Digital Equity and Literacy, North Carolina Department of Information Technology. The Virgin Islands are often left out of pandemic and broadband statistics and studies, due to either size or location, said Adams. “We’re still islands in the national conversation,” he said. “It would be nice to be included.”

“I’m not sure we are prepared for the next crisis,” said Viorica. Along with predictable funding sources, the U.S. needs to create more resilient broadband infrastructure, he said. “We have to make sure those networks will be there in 10 years, or else we will go back to the 2019 experience, when we were going to solve this problem but didn’t.”