- America's AI ambitions depend on broadband infrastructure it still lacks
- The digital divide is a permanent challenge, not a one-time fix
- States and local communities are driving the next wave of digital innovation
"The 14th best broadband and grand ambitions to build an AI-powered economy of the future. I'm not sure how that happens without a resilient, robust network that can move data at the speeds and latency that it needs to."
That observation from Revati Prasad, executive director at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, captures a contradiction at the heart of American technology policy.
The U.S. wants to lead the world in AI. It wants AI-powered industries, AI-powered healthcare, AI-powered government services and AI-driven economic growth. Yet the networks that must support that future remain unfinished, unevenly distributed and increasingly entangled in political uncertainty.
After years of planning around the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program and broader efforts to close the digital divide, many states, providers and advocacy groups find themselves waiting for clarity as priorities shift in Washington.
For Prasad, the challenge extends beyond broadband deployment itself. The larger question is whether the United States is treating connectivity as critical national infrastructure or merely another market category.
The digital divide never ends
For much of the past decade, policymakers have spoken about "closing" the digital divide as though it were a finite problem that could eventually be solved and forgotten.
Prasad believes that framing misses the point.
"I think we've come to an understanding that the digital divide is not a one-time thing. It's not a thing you just close and then move on with," she said. "As long as there's income inequality, as long as there are folks that are marginalized, the divisions are going to show up in a digital realm as well."
The challenge extends far beyond whether a network reaches a particular home or community. Devices, affordability, digital literacy and the ability to use increasingly sophisticated online tools all play a role.
"You need to continue to make sure that people have access to the devices that they need, that people have access to the skills that they need to meaningfully use digital tools," she said.
Viewed through that lens, digital inclusion is less an infrastructure project than an ongoing social and economic responsibility.
BEAD's unfinished promise
Prasad acknowledged that billions of dollars have been committed to broadband infrastructure and that connectivity continues to improve in many parts of the country.
Yet she also expressed frustration that programs designed to accelerate deployment have struggled to reach the finish line.
"We were at one of the last steps with the BEAD program," she said. "States had been planning for several years. They had run their bidding process and they were ready to sign on the dotted line. And then we went back to the starting point."
The delays matter because states, communities and providers have already invested years of planning and preparation.
For Prasad, one of the most valuable aspects of the program was the degree of local involvement it encouraged.
"Having local investment, having state power, allowing communities to direct for themselves how infrastructure should be planned for them is going to be necessary," she said. "And we should be ensuring that they're empowered to be in the driver's seat."
States are becoming innovation labs
While national broadband policy remains uncertain, Prasad sees considerable momentum at the state and municipal level.
She points to efforts in states including Utah, Maine, Vermont and New York that are exploring public-interest approaches to AI infrastructure, public computing resources and alternatives to highly centralized technology models.
"There are efforts not at the national level that are addressing ways of acting as a counterweight to big tech," she said. "And I think those are going to be really essential."
Municipal broadband projects provide another example. Communities that invested in local infrastructure years ago continue to demonstrate that public-interest models can deliver high-quality service while maintaining local accountability.
The broader lesson, Prasad argues, is that innovation does not have to originate in Washington.
The concentration question
Underlying many of these debates is a concern about concentration across the technology sector.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was built around competition. Today's AI economy, however, increasingly rests on a small number of companies controlling chips, cloud infrastructure and foundation models.
"We already know that the current economy is incredibly concentrated," Prasad said. "We've got, like, one chip company, we've got two or three cloud providers, really. And we've got two or three models that we are working off of."
That concentration raises questions not only about competition, but also about governance, resilience and accountability.
"I do think consolidation is sort of the enemy of democracy," she said.
As governments, enterprises and citizens become increasingly dependent on AI systems, cloud infrastructure and digital networks, the broadband debate is no longer merely about connectivity.
It is about economic competitiveness, democratic accountability and who controls the infrastructure that will shape the next phase of the digital economy. For Prasad, that may be the most important broadband question of all.