What Is the Digital Divide?

The digital divide refers to the economic and social disparity between households with access to the internet and those without. Internet access is essential for many high-paying careers, especially those in tech. It’s also increasingly necessary for education, health care, shopping, civic engagement, and many other aspects of our lives. Those without internet access are thus at a disadvantage.

Many government programs and non-profit organizations have attempted to address the digital divide, with varying degrees of success. While much of the problem comes down to cost and availability, the roots of the issue go much deeper. The digital divide continues to be a major challenge at both the local and national levels.

Origins of the digital divide

The term “digital divide” became widespread in the 1990s, though the problem goes back much further than that. As home internet began to become commonplace, poor and rural areas that were already underserved in terms of public utilities and services were also the last to benefit from internet access. As such, the internet didn’t create new social inequalities as much as it amplified existing ones.

When U.S. telecommunications law was updated to deal with new technologies like the internet, these laws had explicitly stated goals of promoting competition and encouraging the growth and expansion of the networks themselves. Sadly, the opposite occurred. Instead of promoting competition, these laws set off a frenzy of mergers and acquisitions that reduced the telecom industry to just a handful of internet service providers (ISPs). With no competition in many areas, those providers had no reason to improve the speeds or lower the prices of their slow DSL service.

The creation of the World Wide Web in 1990 brought internet use to the general public. Then Senator Al Gore asserted the need for “information superhighways” to create economic progress, envisioning school children plugging in to the Library of Congress every afternoon and rural doctors hitting up the Mayo Clinic for an impromptu consultation. While his designs for the future might have been a bit more utopian than what we actually got, he correctly anticipated the importance of the internet for uses like education and telehealth.

Throughout the 1990s, home internet access in the U.S. exploded, but the benefits weren’t evenly distributed. A 1999 study by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) found that internet access was divided along lines of income, race, and education level. People in rural areas also lagged behind urban areas, regardless of income. Furthermore, many of these gaps were actually widening.

The internet is far more ubiquitous today than it was three decades ago, but inequalities still persist. In a January 2026 study by the Pew Research Center, researchers found that about eight-in-ten Americans now say they have high-speed internet at home. Both access and overall use still vary between different groups, leading some to benefit more from our modern digital economy.

Government programs

Government organizations have been trying to address the digital divide since the earliest days of the web, though the approach has often been a contentious political issue. In regards to Al Gore’s proposed fiber network, even George A. Keyworth II, Ronald Reagan’s former science adviser, eventually came around:

“We’re really missing the boat. We have the largest telecommunications system in the world. We have the biggest computer market. And we have the biggest domestic market overall. We should be using our domestic strength as a springboard for our own technological leadership. But we’re not. […] And both history and current observation tell us that our major competitor, Japan, will not approach this new technology with a fragmented domestic market.”

If you swapped out the 1980s fear of Japan with the modern U.S. fear of China, this quote could easily describe current debates about communication infrastructure.

Fortunately, not every debate has gone in circles for 30 years, and some government programs have been enacted, providing tangible benefits to low-income Americans.

The Lifeline program

The Lifeline program was created in 1985, years before the World Wide Web, when the only things on the internet were laboratories, universities, and military installations. Originally, the Lifeline program helped families by providing a discount on their telephone bill, though it later applied to internet service as well.

Unlike many other federal subsidy programs, Lifeline is funded through the Universal Service Fund (USF) rather than through Congressional appropriations. The USF is funded through a fee on telecom providers, which is then used to subsidize providers in rural areas, connect rural health care, provide internet access at public libraries, and to fund programs like Lifeline.

While the Lifeline program has outlived many other low-income internet subsidies, its future is looking less certain. The FCC is considering changes to the program that could make it harder to qualify. Critics of these proposed changes have accused FCC Chairman Brendan Carr of attacking a successful program to intimidate people who should qualify into avoiding the program.

The EBB and ACP

As large numbers of people switched to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government created the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program to help people afford a home internet connection. The EBB provided a monthly discount of up to $50–$75 for qualified households. It also granted a one-time discount of up to $100 toward a new laptop, desktop, or tablet, which would help people who didn’t have the equipment to work from home.

The EBB was designed for temporary relief during the height of the pandemic. It was later replaced by the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The ACP provided $30 per month toward a household’s internet bill, though households on Tribal land or high-cost areas may have been eligible for enhanced support of up to $75 per month. By August of 2023, more than 20 million households signed up for the ACP program, making it the nation’s largest broadband affordability program ever.

The ACP was designed to be an ongoing program, similar to programs like Medicaid or WIC. Unlike Lifeline, however, the ACP depended on Congress for its operating budget. Unfortunately, Congress failed to pass a funding bill for the program, despite a bipartisan funding bill being introduced in early January 2024. Although the program was never officially ended, with no funding, it was forced to shut down in mid-2024.

While there are other ways to get low-cost internet, the ACP was one of the most impactful attempts the government has made toward closing the digital divide. It provided a much-needed economic boost during the pandemic, and its eventual defunding had negative consequences for those who had benefited from it.

The BEAD Program

Unlike Lifeline or the ACP, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program is focused on building communication infrastructure in rural areas, rather than directly subsidizing internet customers. It was passed as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directed toward achieving universal broadband access across the United States and allocated over $42 billion for the job.

The program was originally focused on building out fiber networks into areas where it wasn’t economically feasible to do so otherwise. The Trump Administration then changed the focus of the program to allow satellite providers like Starlink to benefit from BEAD funds. This kind of defeated the purpose of the program, since it was meant to help areas that already had to depend on satellite internet.

The effectiveness of the BEAD program is also impacted by the ending of the ACP. Many of those who benefited from ACP subsidies lived in rural areas. Expanding broadband infrastructure into new areas isn’t as useful if the people in those areas can’t afford it. And if you’re only giving money to the existing satellite providers and not bringing new provider options to these areas, you haven’t accomplished much at all.

Ongoing challenges

Although internet access is important, there’s more to the digital divide than just running a cable to everyone’s house. As Dr. Joy Pierce, author of Digital Fusion: A Society Beyond Blind Inclusion, notes, access is not the same as equality in a digital network society. While internet access is required for remote work, telehealth, and online education, just having the cable to your house doesn’t automatically give you these benefits.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, only 54% of Americans in households making under $30,000 have high-speed internet, as opposed to 94% of those making more than $100,000. Additionally, the number of people who are dependent on their smartphones for their internet access has increased from 8% in 2013 to 16% in 2026. Adults under 30 and Hispanic adults were also more likely to rely on their smartphones instead of home internet.

While you can do a lot on the internet with just a smartphone, there are still some disadvantages when compared to those with a home internet connection and a computer. You can probably pay your bills, but you’re not going to be typing up reports for work or doing college assignments on your phone. Or at least you’re going to have a very bad time if you do.

We support any programs that make meaningful progress toward closing the digital divide, but it’s important to remember that there is no simple solution. We need programs like BEAD that (in theory) build out infrastructure, but we also need programs to make using that infrastructure more affordable. We need programs to help people without computers get devices that meet their needs. And we also need programs to help build up digital literacy to help people make the most of their time spent online.

Additional resources

• What Is the BEAD Program?
• Government Programs for Low-Income Internet
• The Best Rural Internet Providers
• How To Get Free and Low-Cost Internet
• Why Can I Only Get a Few Internet Providers?
• How Much Speed Do I Need?