Connecting the SDGs to Support Broadband for All

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Project Rocky Mountain Region (Project RMR) supports state/county/city broadband plans to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This project began as a collaboration in January 2021 as a countermeasure of rising inequalities in remote access to broadband across our nation. We see that COVID-19 has reshaped inequalities and Project RMR aims to align frameworks serving social, civil and economic equitable remote access outcomes for all.

Broadband internet access is an integral part of our society today and fundamental to economic activity, education, health care, public service delivery, and political and civic engagement. We believe that the choice of living in a rural or under-served area should not limit your access to these essential services. As reported in the New Mexico Broadband Strategic Plan 2020, between 13 and 20 percent of New Mexico locations do not have broadband. A main issue to tackle is the presumption that broadband access is thought of as a private, rather than a public investment.

Why are we concerned with this issue? We see increased involvement on the question on broadband and connectivity from the United Nations’ focus on sustainable development. Through the UN Broadband Commission, UN urges public-private partnerships to reach the ‘unconnected’, and to reach this goal of universal connectivity we will require a collective, collaborative effort by all stakeholders. The commission was founded in 2010 by UNESCO and ITU with a mission to put broadband on the policy agenda and to expand access across the world. Global broadband access has increased by 60% in the last ten years, but 3.6 billion people are still ‘unconnected’. The focus by the UN secretary general on broadband can be seen in the June 2020 report on digital cooperation. In this report they focus on three main goals: Building Back Better With broadband; Accelerating the development of the digital society; and to Leave no one offline. We would like to support the UNs efforts on broadband expansion and . Additional sustainable development in the USA.