Infrastructure law's digital equity goals are key to smart cities that work for everyone

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov. 15, 2021, differs from past infrastructure investments not only in its size but also its emphasis on addressing long-standing and persistent racial injustice. This major investment comes at a time when smart-city initiatives, which aim to use technology to make cities more responsive to their residents’ needs, are growing more common around the world.

Smart cities are made possible by high-speed internet connections. They rely on big data, algorithms and the internet of things to better serve their increasingly diverse communities. For example, smart cities might use data collected from wireless sensors to predict the number of buses that need to be in circulation at a given time of day to reduce wait times.

The hope is that expanding the use of technology will allow smart cities to adapt services in real time to the changing needs and preferences of residents. However, spotty broadband access in many communities in the U.S. has led to concerns that reform efforts that focus on technology, such as smart-city initiatives, could reinforce existing social inequality.

As a researcher who studies public-sector technology and policy, I believe this makes expanding broadband access in underserved communities a critical piece of the new infrastructure act and an important step toward realizing President Biden’s goal of using this infrastructure legislation to advance social equity. There are two reasons for this.

Broadband at broadband speeds

The first is that the digital infrastructure that makes widespread data collection and analysis possible, such as broadband internet, tends to underperform in less affluent communities. For example, a 2019 study by Microsoft shows that 162.8 million people in the U.S. were unable to access internet at broadband speeds.

A contrasting statistic from the FCC estimated considerably fewer Americans were dealing with slow internet connections over that same period. But their number focused on access to broadband connections, as opposed to access to internet connections that actually perform at high broadband speeds.

A white-haired man in a dark business suit gestures with both hands in front of a blueprint-style poster with line drawings of power line towers and a high-speed train

Penn State biologist Andrew Read holds chicken at poultry farm

Expanding access to high-speed internet in underserved communities will help ensure that the data used to inform smart public service delivery does a better job in describing the needs and preferences of a more inclusive cross section of residents and service users, and not just inhabitants of wealthy areas. To this end, bringing these communities true high-speed internet will prevent them from being excluded from the processes that inform public service delivery.