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Abstract
Access to reliable broadband (often referred to as “high-speed internet”) is rapidly becoming a necessity for the everyday lives of Americans. However, the availability of broadband technologies and subsequent adoption has not been uniform across regions in the United States. Historically, rural areas have had lower levels of broadband availability (Grubesic and Murray, 2004), lower speeds (Lee and Leonard, 2023), and lower household adoption rates (Whitacre, 2008) compared to urban areas. To remedy this rural–urban digital divide, the U.S. federal government allocated billions of dollars to improve broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas. Most recently, the Biden–Harris Administration has continued these efforts, announcing over $40 billion to connect every household and small business to reliable broadband by 2030 (The White House, 2023).