COVID-19 shows that America’s broadband plan is still in beta

By Blair Levin

The last time the country faced an economic crisis, Congress saw broadband as a significant tool to jumpstart the recovery. Central to that effort was the 2010 National Broadband Plan, which addressed three fundamental questions: (1) How does our country get broadband networks everywhere, (2) how do we get everyone on those networks, and (3) how can we use broadband to improve the delivery of health care, education, public safety, economic opportunity, and other critical services?

The most important sentence in the plan, however, did not directly answer any of those questions. Rather, it addressed how to