NASHVILLE, TN – Americans have been on line a lot more since the pandemic began. Children attended school remotely, people worked from home, telemedicine became a new trend, and all kinds of meetings took place on ZOOM.
“For more than a decade the CETF has called digital access a 21st century civil right,” said Sunne McPeak, President and CEO of the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF).
The California Public Utilities Commission started the CETF in 2005 in response to corporate mergers of SBC and AT&T, and Verizon with MCI. It’s mission: to close the digital divide.
“Infrastructure is necessary but not sufficient to get everybody on line,” she said. It doesn’t do any good to build the best and fastest network if people aren’t using it. A lot of people simply can’t afford it.