The Infrastructure Bill – An Essential (and Slightly Ironic) Investment into the Future of America Whose Time Has Come

On September 27th, 2021, the House will vote on the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill. If passed by the House, this legislation represents one of the most important investments that the federal government has made since the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.

This trillion-dollar package will invest $65 billion into broadband infrastructure, the modern-day equivalent of this country’s road system of the late 1950s. When President Eisenhower declared the road infrastructure so critical to our nation’s future economy, national security, and global competitiveness, Congress then authorized $25 billion to build for the future to meet the projected traffic demands of 1975. Eisenhower’s goal was to create a 41,000-mile “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways” that would eliminate unsafe roads, create much more efficient routes, and speed up transcontinental travel.

Today, we are the beneficiaries of the 1956 lawmakers’ foresight. Following the interstate construction, the United States experienced a period of exceptionally high economic growth, largely facilitated by the new Interstate Highway System. The gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual compounded rate of 3.9%, which is 25% higher (relatively speaking) than the long-term U.S. average of 3.12%. Increased movement of freight, people being able to travel across the country much more easily, and the new proliferation of businesses along the interstate (think fast food, hotels, gas stations, etc.) helped create a vibrant economy, new found mobility, and higher quality of life.

Today, we sit at the crossroads of the high-speed internet “haves and have-nots”, also known as the digital divide. Those consumers living in the digital divide, approximately 18 million people by FCC estimates, have been operating with “dirt roadways” underneath their feet for quite some time. While the majority of the country has benefited from “paved” high-speed information superhighways (broadband), consumers without access to reliable, high-speed internet have been at a significant disadvantage. 

This disadvantage affects all of us. Beyond the moral imperative to provide access to a service that some EU countries have now deemed to be a right to life essential service, and on the same level as water, high-speed internet enables all of society to function at higher levels.  It's good for people. It's good for businesses. It's good for the entire country and also its GDP.

The COVID-10 pandemic has further highlighted to all of us how essential internet connectivity is. The pandemic forced many of us to trade classrooms and offices for video conferencing calls held at kitchen tables, bedroom nooks, and in cars. Data use on networks went up 47% on a year-over-year basis following the pandemic outbreak, as we made this shift home. But this shift didn’t occur for all of us the same way. For those in the “digital divide”, who were first labeled this term more than 25 years ago, they remained in the era of landlines and download speeds that would frustrate even the most patient fax machine user. 

The impact of high-speed broadband is broad, deep, and multi-faceted. According to recent Deloitte research, if you examine the strong correlation between broadband availability, jobs, and GDP growth, a 10% increase in broadband access in 2014 would have resulted in more than 875,000 additional US jobs and $186B more in economic output in 2019. 

For many of us who already had high-speed internet, the $65 billion in broadband investment will also help increase your download speeds while lowering costs. Deloitte’s research also indicates that higher broadband speeds drive noticeable improvements in job growth. 

Job growth. That is a good thing, but here is where the irony comes in. 

Right now, there is a labor shortage in the United States. We can’t even find enough people to fill the available jobs today. How do we produce more qualified workers? One solution is to deploy broadband fiber as quickly as possible, so those living in the digital divide can get access to online education and be trained to fill these open job positions which also raises their own "personal GDP."

Ironically, there aren’t enough infrastructure construction workers right now to meet the labor needs of the broadband fiber installations that are already slated.

Now imagine this labor demand after this 1 trillion juggernaut gets passed, that authorizes more high-speed fiber installs. Our country clearly needs it. But perhaps if we had already had more broadband-enabled communities, we would have more trained infrastructure construction workers (and all other sector workers for that matter) to meet the current, near term and long-term market demands. Don't get me wrong, this is a good problem to have compared to not having enough jobs. But it is worth understanding how this virtuous cycle and the economic recipe works. Jobs, education, qualified talent, broadband access, and GDP… are all part of this equation. 

So, on the ten-day eve of this legislation being voted on, we hope we can inspire a long-term view, beyond bipartisan politics and with a small sense of irony, of how important this investment into broadband is for our country. Much like it was in 1956, this modern investment that is “so critical to our nation’s future economy, national security and global competitiveness” needs to be made now. The time has come. We must eliminate the digital divide and create a more equitable future for all. We can’t afford to have any person in the United States operating on “digital dirt roads” going forward.