As more of our lives transition to the digital world, access to the Internet and its multitude of applications becomes increasingly more important. Where it was once just a complement to our physical lives, the virtual world has become a crucial part of what we do every day. Online applications for business, health, education, security, and entertainment have all become integrated into our daily lives. These applications and new ones continue to grow at an alarming pace. To function, they must be carried across high-speed, reliable broadband infrastructure, which we can think of like the highway system for the electronic world. Local roads feed into state roads, which feed into the interstate highway system to interconnect individuals to the country’s infrastructure. Similarly, local broadband infrastructure connects to regional and national high-speed networks that interconnect with the global Internet. If the local broadband infrastructure is insufficient, (i.e local roads are insufficient), users (drivers) will have difficulty accessing the global Internet (interstate highway system). Therefore, their broadband access is critical to ensure that users are able to reach the electronic world over a reliable, high-speed local broadband infrastructure. Without this, the applications they use everyday breakdown. The COVID-19 Pandemic has made these issues even more critical. People need to be able to work from home, engage in online learning, access telehealth, search for employment, and the list goes on. Access to high-speed, fiber-based broadband has become a necessity or even a utility that should be available to all citizens to engage in our digital world.
