to deploy an electric grid in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. With help from some Minnesota experts, here's my attempt to simplify a deeply complicated situation, to provide some context for what's unfolding in coming years.įirst, this technology divide and slow road to ending it has a precedent. And yet, when I read about this money being spent on rural broadband or the digital divide, I often think something like, 'Wait, they're still working on that?' I've spent most of my career writing about the tech industry. They decided to spend more than $65 billion this decade installing broadband to households, mainly in rural and tribal areas, that don't have it. It became background noise as our lives more and more revolved around our gadgets.ĭecisions by Congress and the Biden administration over the last couple of years disrupted that noise like the sound of a record scratch. The chatter about a digital divide has been going on since high-speed internet networks started being built in the 1990s.

Wind river indian reservation casino