The COVID-19 pandemic dropped at the forefront the importance of access to secure and ubiquitous connectivity for businesses, governments, communities, and individuals around the globe, but not all residents have the identical opportunities for connection. While access to connectivity continues to expand, some areas, even those inside the USA, are still woefully underserved by the prevailing broadband technologies currently deployed.
Today, satellite and terrestrial communications infrastructures must evolve to democratize access to connectivity worldwide. As a fundamental need in today’s technology-driven society, hybrid network infrastructures can democratize access to connectivity for Americans and the nearly three billion people on this planet who remain unconnected.
The US has struggled to bridge our digital divide at home over the past 20 years, though the U.S. Government and personal sector have invested billions in broadband deployments. Unfortunately, greater than 24 million U.S. households still don’t have access to the web. And embarrassingly, 4 percent of offline households in 2021 cited a scarcity of Web availability in the world. Thousands and thousands of other U.S. residents in big cities and rural towns have access but can’t afford it. Nearly one-third of Americans who don’t have broadband claim the explanation is cost.
The Biden administration launched a $45 billion Web for All initiative last spring to deliver inexpensive high-speed broadband to each corner and everybody across the country, emphasizing unserved and underserved communities. On Feb. 27, Vice President Kamala Harris announced progress in lowering Web costs for over 16 million U.S. households. While the Biden administration is making significant progress, more should be done to shut the digital divide in the USA.
Kentucky and Alaska are two states leveraging federal funds to answer broadband affordability and accessibility challenges. These two states recently unveiled investments to attach mostly rural areas with no web access or chronically slow service at best.
Officials predict Kentucky’s rural fiber-optic network buildout will deliver “dramatic improvements” in broadband connectivity for about 34,000 families, students, and businesses. But these communities will still must wait as much as five years for the service to achieve their homes, stores, and schools. That is a difficulty that can’t wait, given our reliance on connectivity for every little thing from schoolwork to emergency services. The identical story is playing out in other states attempting to bridge the digital divide with traditional network deployments.
Latest hybrid connectivity solutions deliver inexpensive, ultra-high-speed connectivity services to underserved and unconnected communities and may accomplish that on a much faster timeline than current efforts. Hybrid connectivity infrastructures mix the strengths of space, satellite, terrestrial and cellular technologies to create a unified network that may connect the unconnected and deliver access to the most recent internet-based technologies within the hardest-to-reach places on this planet—including underserved locales in the USA. We’re doing our residents a grave disservice if we don’t immediately make this recent technology available to them. We now have the tools to bridge this digital divide and connect the unconnected; there isn’t any reasonable explanation for not utilizing the hybrid technology available to attach our residents.
While the sweet spot for cost-effective fiber and cellular 5G service delivery is commonly limited to urban regions, satellite, with its nearly unlimited reach, can affordably push 5G into distant, isolated communities where fiber can’t go, not less than not without major and sometimes prohibitive expense.
Democratized access to communications technologies improves critical services, similar to healthcare, telemedicine, economics, business and education, and ensures everyone has a good probability. Equal access to connectivity can not be ignored anywhere on this planet; it’s a critical issue that should be addressed in societies which are increasingly reliant on connectivity for a few of the most elementary needs possible, especially inside our own borders.
While the Biden administration looks to expand access to broadband services in the USA, I urge lawmakers to contemplate hybrid connectivity infrastructures as a key solution to addressing the connectivity gap in our communities. Access to communications technologies is just as critical today as roads and bridges, and hybrid connectivity infrastructures can solve this challenge in relatively no time and at an affordable cost.
Hybrid infrastructures can deliver the web accessibility and affordability that has eluded a few of our communities for thus long. By backing programs leveraging existing and emerging space, satellite, terrestrial, and wireless networks, our lawmakers can play a key role in closing the digital divide for good.