Bhaskar Chakravorti, Columnist

Biden’s Plan for Broadband Isn’t Bold Enough

Internet access is infrastructure. But fixing the patchy U.S. system is going to take more than $100 billion.

May 3, 2021 at 10:00 AM EDT

Bhaskar Chakravorti is the dean of global business at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and founding executive director of Fletcher's Institute for Business in the Global Context. He is the author of "The Slow Pace of Fast Change."

Using the free wifi at the YCMA.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

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President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan is smart to look beyond ports and potholes. But I worry about the part of the plan aimed at expanding broadband. It’s both too ambitious and not ambitious enough.

Make no mistake, broadband is infrastructure. It’s unacceptable that American schoolchildren have to piggyback on the Wi-Fi provided by fast-food restaurants to submit homework, and adults have uneven internet access as they hold down remote jobs, apply for jobs, or make Covid vaccine appointments. The problem needs fixing — and soon.

Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal

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