We already know the kind of chaos COVID-19 is causing in the entire world. With over 18 lakh cases worldwide, claiming lives of over a lakh people, it seems things are getting worse day by day.?
The whole world is under lockdown, and amidst all this internet is helping many people keep their sanity while helping many work from home and take care of their families.??
However, recently, situations in the US haven¡¯t been positive. More and more people are filing for unemployment in the last two months.?
However, what¡¯s astonishing is that the number that has generated in the last two months is more than what America witnessed during the great depression of 2008. And a recent report by the New York Times suggests that over 20 million Americans will be unemployed by the end of this month.
While there are many problems in the way that are causing this, unavailability of broadband internet is one big reason.
We might wonder that the US is such a developed nation, so it would have access to the internet almost everywhere across the country. However, that isn¡¯t really the case. Pointed out by Business Insider, According to data by Microsoft, 162.8 million Americans aren¡¯t using broadband internet.?
Now you might be wondering, so what there¡¯s no high-speed internet, doesn¡¯t mean it should affect people¡¯s employment, but that¡¯s not the case.?
Studies have shown that where high-speed internet is installed, businesses make use of tools to make their processes more efficient, bring new services that result in a spike in customers as well as jobs.
A 2018 Microsoft study has found a straight correlation that tells exactly that --countries with highest unemployment rate also had the lowest broadband internet availability.
FCC had been relying on private companies to help bridge this gap. The Federal Communications Commission last year promised to auction off $20bn worth of incentives for rural broadband access.?
But the FCC itself estimates it will cost as much as $80bn to get fibre optic cable to every household in the US. On the other hand, the consultancy firm Deloitte predicts it could cost as high as $150bn.
The news for India is a bit mixed. India?has managed to cast a stronger net of internet connectivity across rural parts of the nation. As a part of Phase I of Bharat Net -- an initiative to connect rural India to the internet -- Fiber connections have been extended to 250,000 (2.5 lakh) rural villages in India so far.?
The Delhi-based BBNL data revealed that 432,952 kilometres of optical fibre cable has been laid to connect 1,51,729 village blocks making as many as 138,409 blocks service-ready as on March 31, 2020, with 2,148-gram panchayats in remote areas having satellite-based connectivity of the total projected 6,407 blocks.
And while this might be a good thing, recent reports have sadly revealed that the Phase II which was supposed to get completed by this year is now pushed to August 2021 -- due to BSNL¡¯s poor performance.
Moreover, India's Internet speed seems to be in decline since January 2020, according to a recent report by internet speed test giant Ookla. India has dropped in its internet speed ranking around the world. In March 2020, India ranked at 130th for mobile -- 2 spots down as well as 71st (again, two spots down) in fixed broadband category globally.