Davidson Emphasizes Prioritization of Unserved Communities and Predicts Certain Areas “Will Have Significant Portions” of Mixed-Technology Broadband Solutions

Press Release
May 25, 2022
Contact: Jon Conradi
[email protected]

Washington, D.C. – Connect Americans Now (CAN) executive director Richard T. Cullen released the following statement Wednesday reacting to remarks from National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Administrator Alan Davidson at Mountain Connect 2022.

“Connect Americans Now (CAN) commends Administrator Davidson for his continued commitment to ensuring states and broadband providers have the flexibility needed to maximize the positive impact, reach and cost-effectiveness of resources targeted at eliminating the digital divide,” Cullen said. “As NTIA works to ensure states get the broadband funding they need to connect unserved and underserved areas, we hope the administration stays committed to ensuring states and broadband providers have the ability to deploy a wide range of solutions to reach the most people as quickly as possible.”

During the event, Davidson said, “the starting point for us was this idea that not every state is built the same way. The needs of different states are going to be different. We know that, you know, the needs of Rhode Island are really different than the needs of Colorado or Montana or Alaska. And so, we wanted to make sure we’re building in a lot of flexibility in this for the states to meet their needs … we fully expect that states will — that there will be states who will have significant portions of other technologies.”

“Our strong belief is that we’re going to look back, ten years from now, 20 years from now, and look at this as the moment that our generation took the step to do what generations before us did which is to make sure everybody had the economic opportunity that they needed to address the inequalities and the fairness in our society by making sure everybody can be a part of the modern economy,” Davidson continued. “And for us that means meaningful adoption of high-speed, affordable, reliable internet.”

Connect Americans Now (CAN) is a broad-based coalition of more than 300 companies and organizations representing leading voices in agriculture, education, health care, veterans’ issues, technology, and small business — committed to urgent action to completely eliminate the digital divide in every American community.

Watch the full Mountain Connect 2022 event HERE.

Learn more about how federal agencies can maximize the positive impact of infrastructure law broadband programs HERE.

Learn more about Connect Americans Now HERE.

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