When the Internet Isn’t Equal: My Journey Into Broadband Equity Research

Growing Up Disconnected

I grew up in Quincy, Florida, a small rural town where household incomes lagged behind the state and national averages. Internet access was almost nonexistent. Options were slow, expensive, and unreliable—if they were available at all.

That mattered more than just not being able to stream videos. It meant that kids couldn’t fully participate in school assignments, families had fewer job opportunities, and staying connected felt like a privilege rather than a right.

Even today, Quincy continues to struggle with limited broadband options. That reality stuck with me—and it became the spark that drove me to study technology innovation more deeply.

Why Broadband Became My Research Focus

When I started my PhD program at National University, I enrolled in TIM-7001: Principles of Technology Innovation Management. From day one, I knew broadband would be my focus.

This wasn’t an abstract academic exercise. It was personal. I had lived the problem, and now I wanted to understand it in a structured, research-driven way.

Turning Lived Experience Into Research

Over eight assignments, I connected my Quincy story to broader questions about equity, governance, and innovation:

I looked at broadband through philosophical lenses—utopian, dystopian, and neutral.
I explored smart cities, asking if they empower citizens or just expand surveillance.
I studied frameworks like the Digital Equity Lens and NIST Risk Management Framework to see how policy can align equity with security.
I compared U.S. programs like BEAD with global models from Amsterdam, Singapore, and Barcelona, asking: what can America learn?

Each step pulled me deeper into the research, but also kept me grounded in where I came from.

The Three Big Lessons

Good intentions aren’t enough.
Federal programs often aim big but fall short in practice. Affordability, mapping errors, and poor governance leave gaps.
Equity and security must go together.
Giving people access without protecting them isn’t progress. Both matter equally.
Other countries are ahead of us.
Global cities show that equity, digital rights, and cybersecurity can be baked into broadband strategy from the start.

A First Milestone

The proudest moment came when my professor encouraged me to publish my first paper on SSRN. What started as an assignment about broadband as critical infrastructure turned into my first piece of publicly available research.

For someone who grew up in a town where internet access was a constant barrier, putting that work into a global academic conversation was a full-circle moment.

👉 You can read my work here on SSRN.

Why This Matters

For me, this research isn’t just about technology. It’s about fairness. It’s about whether kids growing up in towns like Quincy will have the same opportunities as kids in big cities.

Broadband isn’t a luxury—it’s the foundation of modern life. And my first PhD course reminded me of something simple but powerful:
Innovation only matters when it serves people.