A bipartisan group of U. S. Senators has asked leaders of its Senate Committee on Appropriations to fully fund both the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act and the Broadband DATA Act. Both are critical to closing the Digital Divide.
In a letter to their leadership, eighteen Senators pointed out that such funding of the Secure and Trusted Communications Act (known as the rip and replace act) will help small, rural telecommunications providers remove equipment that threatens domestic networks, and replace it with equipment from trusted providers.
Fully funding the Broadband DATA Act will ensure more accurate broadband maps. Better maps, in turn, will reduce or preclude the risk of overbuilding existing networks, duplicating existing facilities, and thereby forcing many communities to remain completely unserved, or seriously underserved.
Such a bipartisan approach is refreshing, and hopefully a sign of things to come. Closing the Digital Divide between rural and urban America will need all of the political support it can get.
