The 2021 Infrastructure Bill committed $65 billion in public funds to broadband deployment, equity, and access. This commitment is the largest public investment in telecommunications in the country’s history. $42.5 billion is earmarked specifically for broadband deployment in rural and remote areas. The level of funding has been met with considerable excitement from the broadband community along with equal levels of consternation around eligibility and requirements. One question not being asked is why has it taken the United States so long to bridge the digital divide? Asked differently, why do rural and remote areas continue to need public investment in broadband infrastructure when tens of billions of dollars have already been spent over the last 20 years? Drawing from research from his new book Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity, Christopher Ali will address this question, connecting the dots between rural electrification in the 1930s, the failure of federal policy and the private market over the past two decades, and the promise and potential of rural broadband funding in the Infrastructure Bill. Grounded in the tradition of the critical political economy of communication, this talk will offer a future vision for broadband deployment based on local connectivity, cooperative models, and community support.  

Christopher Ali is an associate professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia and a Knight News Innovation Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. He is the author of the new book Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity (MIT Press, 2021).