Bluebird’s President & CEO, Michael Morey, recently joined John Roth and Frederick Weiss to discuss the future of the internet in an episode of the Head in the Cloud Podcast. Morey addresses many issues communities face around the digital divide, and specific long-term solutions for bridging the divide.
In fact, Morey shared his experience of not having reliable connectivity at his home in St. Louis, Missouri. At the beginning of the pandemic, Morey quickly implemented COVID-19 safety precautions by requiring staff to work from home. However, he wasn’t able to do so because of poor connectivity in his town. Throughout the pandemic, Morey worked from the office so he could send large files and join in on video conferences.
Morey understands from the experience how critical it is to have strong and reliable connectivity in the home.
The digital divide has been an issue for decades, but the past couple of years have made the issue more prominent and obvious. Morey discusses his thoughts on a solution around expanding infrastructure and strengthening connectivity in underserved communities:
“In the long term, you see a tremendous amount of money, both at a federal level and at state levels flowing into infrastructure fiber bills. Because the real answer is you need to get fiber to every home throughout America.” He continues by stating, “So the only way to provide this kind of service in places that are not financially viable, is to have a government entity provide some kind of grant whether it’s your local city, your state, your county, the federal organization, that’s the only way to solve the problem long term”.
To hear the full episode with Michael Morey and his thoughts around the future of the internet, click here.
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