President Biden has proclaimed that “broadband is the next electricity” and promised $65 billion to connect the un- and under-connected in the United States. COVID-19 demonstrated, both painfully and dramatically, the need for high-speed, affordable, high-quality broadband, but what does it mean to bring broadband to everyone? More importantly, why hasn’t this already happened? As the United States looks towards the largest single public investment in telecommunications in the country’s history, we must also look backward to ask why the infrastructural digital divide, which particularly plagues rural and tribal areas, has yet to be bridged.

Join Lifetime Learning and UVA Associate Professor Christopher Ali as he discusses his new book, Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity and the rural-urban digital divide in the United States. Despite massive levels of federal investment, tens of millions of Americans remain un-connected while even more remain under-connected or unable to access the internet because of cost. Hear about why there are so many un- and under-connected rural areas in the United States and how policymakers and communities are attempting to bridge the digital divide.

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