Giving Compass' Take:

• Nicol Turner-Lee recalls her experience covering Garrett County, Maryland, and what it revealed about dealing with the rural digital divide.

• What sort of implications does a digital divide have in today's technological world? How can you help bridge the gap between rural communities and digital access?

• Learn about how coronavirus has impacted the rural digital divide.

Getting robust broadband service to Garrett County has been challenging due to its location and rural topography. Eighty-two percent of residents own a computer, but only 73 percent have residential internet service. Moreover, the physical terrain and low-density population have largely led to lower-than-average broadband penetration and use. Because broadband infrastructure can be both expensive and technically challenging in rural areas, residents suffer the consequences of being digitally invisible in the information economy.

Garrett County resembles many other rural areas in the U.S. that are waiting for policymakers and incumbent internet service providers (ISPs) to move forward on expanding digital access in their communities. But what’s different about the county is the response of local stakeholders to fixing the challenges of being on the wrong side of the digital divide. My first photo essay focused on how residents of rural Staunton, Virginia, were defining and navigating the digital divide. In this composition, I’m highlighting the technical and community-based solutions that Garrett County is adopting to narrow digital disparities. One approach has been the county’s investment in and deployment of an innovative broadband solution incorporating TV white spaces that leverage the unused spectrum between television channels to provision broadband service, including Wi-Fi.

During our visit to Garrett County, I interviewed county residents, workers, and business owners, who underscored for me the need to make policy shifts in how we address the challenges of the rural broadband digital divide. These residents demonstrate that policymakers should consider investments in solutions to digital gaps that are being locally generated.

It’s now up to policymakers and productive partnerships among government, the private sector, and civil society to get creative on approaches and be more courageous risk takers to ensure equitable digital access in rural America.

Read the full article about the rural digital divide by Nicol Turner-Lee at Brookings.