According to the Pew Research Center, 44% of adults in households with incomes below $30,000 do not have access to any Internet connectivity – including from a smartphone. This number rises precipitously as household income drops and access becomes less a question of affordability and more of the availability of infrastructure to serve predominantly low-income communities.

While economic development and population growth are stunted by the lack of broadband, nothing harms the viability of a community as much as the digital divide among children. The digital divide represents an additional education and success gap that children, especially those from low-income households, face when they do not have broadband in the home. The COVID-19 crisis has turned the digital divide into a more pressing crisis as children without broadband will be increasingly disadvantaged academically than when school was held in a traditional manner.