Despite large amounts of federal money, and some significant amounts from various state governments, the percentage of both urban and rural residents without robust broadband remains high.  While understanding of, and support for, the positive roles of broadband are growing, some key players at all levels are still not convinced or actively opposed to at least some possible steps forward. The public officials and community activists leading the charge need to understand and work with that reality. Major steps forward on the supply side have made deployment faster, better, cheaper. But those gains are not always passed on to the end-users. The pandemic has led to all sorts of experiments with using broadband for remote activity -- a great success for some jobs, moderate success for some health care, and very mixed or bad results for much schooling. Many, but not all, of the disappointments stem from the lack of access, affordability, or knowledge of how to use robust broadband. 

Rollie Cole (HKS MPP ’72, PhD ’75; HLS JD ’75) will discuss the associated leadership challenges at the local, state, and federal levels and how to deal with them based on his writing for Broadband Communities Magazine. 

This meeting is one of a series offered by the HKS New England Alumni Association.