Calling the Digital Divide Cavalry

On September 16 – 18, 2025, we attended the Digital Access Research Forum. Hosted by the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Kansas City, New York and Philadelphia. The forum brought together academics, researchers, community development practitioners, and policymakers to highlight and discuss the latest research on digital access.

Several people in our network suggested (sometimes strongly) that we attend, so we came to the forum with open minds and a willingness to learn. 

We walked away with renewed resolve.

The Digital Divide Needs Reframing

Access vs Income

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to a breakout session titled Broadband Affordability and Adoption. One of the presenters, Ambika Nair, from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, gave a presentation titled “Broadband Affordability: Assessing the Cost of Broadband for Low-and-Moderate Income Communities in Cities. You can find a summary and a link to the full report at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York website.

In her presentation about the report, Ms. Nair looked at how low-and-moderate income (LMI) households face excessive cost burdens from broadband prices and other household costs. One set of data points really stood out.

Compared to the overall population in metropolitan areas, LMI households pay more as a share of their income for broadband and other expenses:

• 4 times as much for broadband

• Over 2 times as much for other utilities

• Almost 2 times as much for rent

Think about it. As a percentage of their income, LMI households are paying 4X more to get online. It’s no wonder that they start and stop internet services more frequently than people in higher income brackets.

Another set of stats also made an impact.

“Low- and moderate-income communities pay a notably higher share of their income for broadband — 2.43% compared to 0.51% in wealthier areas — exceeding the FCC's 2% affordability benchmark.”

In the nonprofit sector, people are used to talking about housing costs as a percentage of household income. It’s central to discussions about many of the aspects of today’s housing crisis.

Ms. Nair’s framing does the same for broadband access, and by association, about the difficulty of bridging the digital divide. We should be talking about broadband accessibility as the Digital Access Crisis — because in many communities across the U.S. it truly is. 

Digital Access Can’t Be Solved by Markets — Today

There’s a common refrain that we hear — markets can solve societal issues. And the data just doesn’t support this notion. We’re talking about people. LMI households can’t easily absorb financial shocks. Service for rural communities is typically prohibitively expensive. 

One month they can bear the costs of internet access. If there’s any disruption in their income the next month, then they can’t bear that cost. The market doesn’t address this reality.

In some areas, satellite service has been proposed. Aside from the fact the technology doesn’t work for everyone in all geographies, the cost is somewhere around 16 - 32 times more than the cost of the affordable options our partners offer. It’s not even in the same universe.

People in urban areas may have just one internet service provider. That’s more access than people without any options, but it doesn’t mean that those services are affordable. Also, if markets had solved the problem for rural citizens — they would have broadband today. But they don’t.

But there are reasons to be optimistic. There are community-based solutions that are helping, such as community broadband networks. These networks can serve areas major ISPs can’t or won’t by providing quality, affordable broadband solutions.

The Jig is Up

Everyone in the digital equity space has heard and told stories ad nauseam about kids sitting outside of a Starbucks, McDonalds, etc. to get internet access so that they can do homework. But time after time, potential donors and funders tell us that they think these stories are anecdotal.

“Where’s the data?” they ask.

The Digital Access Research Forum ran for multiple days as expert after expert, and researcher after researcher across the country laid out the data. It supported what we already knew, but didn’t have the data at hand to present to skeptics. Each presenter reinforced how the digital access crisis influences so many aspects of modern life from education attainment, to business, healthcare, and workforce development — prime drivers of the economy and people’s lives.

We heard evidence about how broadband availability, speed, and affordability have created widening fissures between the haves and the have-nots.

The jig us up. No longer can potential supporters shrug off our stories. They have got to jump in and be part of addressing the digital divide.

We Were Wrong About the Covid Bump

During the Covid 19 pandemic, broadband access became a big deal. School districts invested in infrastructure. Hotspots became difficult to get. Lead times for internet enabled devices rose. 

And we thought, finally… The digital divide is center stage. Funding and solutions are going to flow. LMI and rural families are going to get affordable options.

And then kids went back to school. Teachers returned to classrooms. And it feels like people stopped caring. Funding stopped flowing. Government programs pulled back. Once again, families are being left behind.

All of this is clear from the research — much of it conducted post-pandemic.

The digital equity sector has got to reassess the funding environment — and the attention environment. Learn more about this in our article, Can An Innovative Partnership Save Your Digital Equity Program? 

The data is there. The stories are there. We must elevate both.

We are the Digital Divide Calvary

One more thing became clear as we listened to the presenters in Kansas City. No one is coming to the rescue — except for the people already in the digital equity ecosystem. That’s us. That’s our Partners. And it has to be the new partnerships that form out of events like the Digital Access Research Forum.

The forum was a great opportunity to meet other people in the digital equity space. In between sessions, we expanded our network — connecting with people who produced the data that was presented. It was uplifting to get verification and validation of all the things that we have known and shared with our peers.

Together, we need to look for new ways to fund digital equity programs. We need to bring new players into the fight, from philanthropists and foundations to potential partners that need proofpoints. We must support advocacy that moves legislation forward.

It’s up to us to charge forward, armed with more knowledge, and work for digital inclusion — harder than we have before.