A decade ago, streaming high-definition videos on a smartphone could test even the most patient users. Phones were paralyzed by slow 3G networks based on spread-spectrum radio transmission technology, particularly Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Load times were prolonged, and network security remained inadequate due to vulnerabilities in early encryption protocols. In rural regions, average speeds ranged from 0.2 to just a few megabits per second (Mbps), sufficient only for the most basic web browsing and email, and often unreliable. Fast forward to today: 5G has become an invisible engine of daily connectivity, quietly powering applications and devices that most Americans take for granted. Yet a significant portion of the population—particularly in underserved communities concentrated in the Midwest and urban neighborhoods—still lacks dependable access to even basic broadband, let alone standardized 5G. The U.S. is advancing toward 6G development, yet efforts to ensure equitable access to existing networks persist.
The Technology and History Behind 5G
5G is the fifth generation of mobile technology that uses networks of base stations and antennas to generate coverage areas referred to as “cells”. When these cells overlap, they form continuous networks covering entire regions that devices can then connect to and communicate with the nearest base station. 5G is based on OFDM (Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing), a method of transmitting digital signals across multiple channels to minimize interference. Building on this foundation, 5G employs the New Radio (NR) air interface alongside OFDM and incorporates wide bandwidths through sub-6 GHz and millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum. Like 4G LTE, 5G uses the same underlying network principles, but the 5G NR interface enhances OFDM to deliver far greater flexibility and scalability. It also uses special antennas called massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output), which enables simultaneous transmission and reception of multiple signals.
5G’s goal is centered around speed: with data download rates up to 100 times faster than 4G, 5G can download full-length movies in seconds instead of minutes. Additionally, 5G’s speed is bolstered by its use of higher radio frequencies, which can enable applications that require low latency such as those powered by AI and machine learning (ML), in contrast to the low-frequency wave spectrum 4G is limited to. By comparison, 4G networks have an average latency of roughly 50 milliseconds, while 5G is capable of reducing that figure to around 10 milliseconds.
In March 2019, South Korea made history as the first country to offer 5G commercially to its citizens. The novel technology was rolled out by South Korean telecom providers LG Uplus, KT, and SK Telecom. The United States followed a few months later, when Verizon released a local 5G mobile network in Chicago and Minneapolis. In December, T-Mobile launched the first nationwide 5G network—reaching over 200 million people, spanning more than 5,000 cities and towns, and covering more than a million square miles, much of it in rural America, according to the Deutsche Telekom AG subsidiary.
The High Cost of Staying Connected
According to the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, the digital divide is defined as, “the gap between those who have affordable access, skills, and support to effectively engage online and those who do not.”
The digital divide is, at its core, a human rights issue.
The Federal Communications Commission released its 2024 Communications Marketplace Report on December 31, a congressionally mandated review that arrives every two years. The report evaluates the state of competition across the communications sector, weighing intermodal and facilities-based competition as well as the impact of newer, emerging services. It also examines whether laws, regulations, or marketplace practices are impeding new entrants or constraining the growth of existing providers. Among the findings: more than a third of Americans, or roughly 83 million people either lack access to high-speed broadband or are limited to a single provider. The burden of this restricted access is borne most heavily by low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities.
Furthermore, a 2021 Pew Research analysis revealed that financial hurdles remain a leading obstacle to home broadband adoption. Nearly half of non-subscribers—45%—say the monthly cost is simply too high, while about four in ten point to the price of a computer as prohibitive. While studies suggest that affordability varies widely by region and demographic group, especially due to “household characteristics” such as income and expenditures, an alarmingly large volume of low-income households across the nation (~53% in a Benton Institute for Broadband and Society research study) find that affording monthly internet service is either very or somewhat difficult.
Understanding why broadband remains prohibitively expensive for many Americans requires a closer look at the industry itself. A handful of providers dominate the market—just six internet service providers (ISPs) control 98% mobile internet coverage, according to a Federal Trade Commission staff report. Competition is constrained by the highly localized nature of cable and telephone monopolies, which carve up territories and effectively lock out new entrants. In monopolized markets, the debilitating cost of building infrastructure leaves smaller firms sidelined before they can even start. Additionally, latest industry changes suggest that the broadband footprint will become even smaller as more companies merge and consolidate. For example, Xfinity remains the nation’s largest cable internet provider, but Spectrum’s proposed acquisition of Cox—a secondary operator with roughly 6.5 million customers—would vault it into the digital throne if approved. AT&T has likewise announced plans to acquire 95% stake in Lumen’s Quantum Fiber, while in May, the FCC cleared Verizon’s $20 billion purchase of Frontier Communications.
"Because of the way that we classify broadband service providers, the FCC has very little authority over prices, which means that [ISPs] can pretty much do whatever they want," Christopher Ali, a telecommunications professor at Penn State, shared with CNET. Put simply, limited choice means higher bills. With only one or two providers in most markets, ISPs have free rein to inflate prices.
A study from the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School asserts that decades of public policy have treated broadband deployment primarily as a matter of market supply and demand, rather than recognizing internet access as a fundamental necessity. The report further observes that federal and state grant programs, by focusing narrowly on incentivizing providers, have inadvertently constrained innovative service models and perpetuated the exclusion of communities considered unprofitable.
The Impacts of Digital Fault Lines
Reliance on digital technology in education has quickly become the norm. From homework and research projects to remote classes, students are now expected to use internet-enabled devices at nearly every stage of their schooling. Even beyond the classroom, college applications, scholarship searches, and standardized test preparation often require reliable access to computers and broadband.
The United Nations Children’s Fund estimates that 1.3 billion children worldwide, ages 3 to 17, still lack internet access at home. The gap is more than a matter of connectivity: it deepens educational divides, shutting school-age children out of the resources and opportunities their connected peers take for granted. When classrooms went virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital divide became impossible to ignore. Without reliable internet access, students were cut off from the digital platforms central to remote learning. This inequity contributed to measurable learning loss, particularly when compared with peers who had consistent and sufficient connectivity.
According to an April 2020 Pew survey, nearly half of lower-income parents (43 percent) say their children are likely to complete schoolwork on a cell phone. Four in ten report that their child may need to rely on public Wi-Fi due to unreliable home internet, and more than a third (36 percent) say it is at least somewhat likely their children will be unable to finish assignments at all for lack of a computer.
Deloitte estimates that if U.S. broadband penetration had been 10 percentage points in 2014, the economy would have added 875,000 additional jobs and nearly $186 billion in GDP by 2019—a counterfactual that illustrates the opportunity costs of incessant digital exclusion. At the household level, broadband access directly correlates with labor force participation: workers without home internet face higher job search frictions, lower matching efficiency, and reduced access to remote employment opportunities, cumulatively depressing wages by thousands of dollars annually.
Nationally, the Digital Impact Group estimates that digital exclusion costs the U.S. economy more than $55 billion per year across education, healthcare, financial services, and employment domains. The persistence of this divide exacerbates spatial economic inequality: rural counties without adequate broadband report unemployment rates up to 0.38 percentage points higher than connected counterparts, while early-adopting rural counties that did secure high-speed access demonstrated unemployment reductions as large as 1.57 points, suggesting broadband functions as an enabling infrastructure for labor mobility and regional growth. Moreover, because education and skill acquisition are increasingly digitally mediated, the absence of broadband perpetuates human capital deficits that lower long-run productivity growth and earnings potential; the Federal Reserve found that students with reliable internet access at home out-earn those without by an average of $2 million over their lifetimes.
Closing the Divide
Since establishing the $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) in 2020, the FCC has allocated approximately $9.2 billion via Phase I (Auction 904) to extend fixed broadband to over 5.2 million rural households and businesses. Impressively, nearly all locations are now slated to receive connections capable of 100/20 Mbps, with 85% positioned in areas where gigabit-speed service is guaranteed. The program plugged significant connectivity gaps while maintaining fiscal discipline. RDOF built on the success of the earlier CAF II model and leveraged a two-phase reverse auction structure, rewarding providers based on performance (speed and latency) and value, and ensuring that rural development was cost-effective.
The 5G Fund is poised to expand mobile broadband reach. Developed on learnings from RDOF, the FCC’s August 2024 Second Report and Order set a strategic course for the 5G Fund, authorizing up to $9 billion for advanced mobile deployment in rural America. This not only broadened geographic eligibility, including U.S. territories and tribal lands, but also increased budget allocations and introduced rigorous requirements including cybersecurity plans and incentives for Open RAN implementation.
Beyond the FCC, the USDA’s Rural Development Broadband ReConnect Program provides grants, low-interest loans, and combined loan-grant packages to finance the construction and expansion of fixed broadband networks in underserved rural communities. The ReConnect Program is one of several federal initiatives funded largely by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), aimed at closing the digital divide nationwide. Eligible applicants include cooperatives, tribal and local sovereignty, utilities, and private providers, and all projects must deliver 100 Mbps symmetrical service throughout the coverage area. Loan awards may reach $50 million at a fixed 2% interest rate while full grants can total $25 million, with targeted awards for tribal government and persistent poverty regions extending to nearly $35 million without a cost-sharing requirement.
In addition to the ReConnect Program, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has allocated funds to all fifty states and U.S. territories to expand broadband infrastructure in underserved areas. Likewise, the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, a $3 billion NTIA initiative, has supported the deployment of high-speed internet on Tribal lands while advancing distance learning and telehealth.
The Promise, and the Gap
The country is sprinting toward 6G while many Americans still struggle to load a webpage. Unfortunately, rural and underserved communities remain at the heart of this divide, where limited or nonexistent broadband access continues to hinder economic opportunity and educational attainment.
Despite billions poured into broadband infrastructure, systemic barriers that limit workforce opportunities and force students to rely on unreliable Wi-Fi just to complete their assignments prevail. These gaps intensify existing inequalities, disproportionately affecting low-income communities. Policymakers face the dual challenge of allocating funds effectively while ensuring long-term sustainability in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Meanwhile, internet providers, which have exploited the system and fostered local monopolies, must be held accountable at the federal level to guarantee that all Americans, regardless of geographic location, can access reliable service.
The consolidation of internet providers into a handful of dominant companies has left most Americans with few, often prohibitively expensive options. Lower-income households are trapped in a digital limbo where reliable connectivity is out of reach; expanding competition and implementing targeted subsidies could provide a critical midpoint solution, unlocking opportunities long denied to those left on the wrong side of the divide.
Access to the internet is no longer optional—yet federal inaction and monopolized networks threaten to leave millions stranded in the digital dark. Ultimately, without aggressive policy and firm accountability for internet providers, America’s digital divide will widen—and political and social fault lines will deepen in a hyperconnected age