The White House’s infrastructure package brings broadband

The Biden administration unveiled this week an eight-year, $2 trillion agenda for The American Jobs Plan, which the White House said “will create millions of good jobs, rebuild our country’s infrastructure, and position the United States to out-compete China.”  Quoting liberally from Axios on where the tech money goes.

• $180 billion for tech R&D, including $50 billion for the National Science Foundation, $40 billion for research labs around the country, and $30 billion for job creation in rural areas.
• $174 billion for the electric vehicle industry, including building a network of 500,000 chargers across the U.S. and ramping up American production of EVs.
• $100 billion for broadband infrastructure, with the goal of giving 100% of Americans access to high-speed broadband. (It would also attempt to make the industry more competitive, and cheaper for customers.)
• $100 billion for supply-chain work, half of which would go to projects “to support production of critical goods” in the U.S.

Obviously not passed, but me and my “broadband as a utility” train is gaining speed.    The goals are not immediate – but this is a big deal.    I will continue to argue that this investment is only good for technology in general and IT services specifically.