As was true with waterways, railways, highways, and electricity in prior generations, advanced digital technologies are crucial drivers of job creation and economic growth. Both of which rely on digitally enabled innovations in health care, education, transportation, communications, and across the economy more broadly. Advanced digital technologies even have the capacity to impact everything from workforce and economic productivity, to housing markets and retail sales.
The term digital access refers to the capacity for people, industries, and commerce to access the digital:
- Infrastructure, such as cellular and fiberoptic broadband internet;
- Tools, like computers and smartphones; and
- Skills necessary to leverage these technologies, often referred to as digital literacy or digital readiness.
Measuring Digital Access in Greater Philadelphia
79.7
Households with a broadband subscription
percent82.5
Households with a computer
percent91.5
Seniors with a device that connects to the internet
percent
Through the lenses of digital infrastructure, tools, and skills, these metrics can help us better understand the varying degrees of digital access across Greater Philadelphia, and identify areas where increased access may be needed for the region to fully realize the economic potential of these digital technologies.
Discussing the Issues
It is important to understand challenges to digital access through a multitude of lenses. The complexity of issues surrounding advanced digital technologies have the capacity to impact all aspects of the economy.
Digitalization in the Transportation and Warehousing Industry
Transportation and Warehousing is one of the fastest growing sectors. However, the majority of the sector’s jobs are at high risk of digital automation. To better understand this issue, the Delaware Valley Goods Movement Task Force hosted a panel discussion among industry experts on the influence that digital tools and technologies will have on the future of the goods movement workforce. The discussion emphasized the need for reskilling and upskilling initiatives to ensure workers remain relevant and employable in this rapidly changing industry.
Recording of the Delaware Valley Goods Movement Task Force meeting and panel discussion.
Slides [1.4MB pdf] of DVRPC’s Transportation and Warehousing sector analysis.
Comparing Regional Economies
Digitally enabled telework and automation have significant implications for the future of the workforce, and the region's economy, but the intensity of their impacts will differ from one industry to the next. The Comparing Regional Economies dashboard was developed to help better understand how these forces may impact the region’s economy as compared to that of nine peer regions.
Digital Technologies and the Digital Divide
Like the technologies themselves, digital access planning is ever-evolving, and has its own unique terminology and set of key stakeholders. Part One of DVRPC ’s Broadband series, Discussing the Technology, serves as a primer on digital telecommunications technologies specifically.
The term “digital divide” refers to the gap between people who have access to digital tools and technologies, and those that do not. Part Two of DVRPC’s Broadband series, Understanding the Digital Divide, quantified the state of the digital divide in Greater Philadelphia.
Taking Strategic Action
Digital access is a multifaceted issue, and overcoming the challenges related to it will require strategic action across all levels of government, as well as within both the public and private sectors.
The Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS)
The CEDS, Growing Greater Philadelphia, serves as the strategy-driven economic development framework for the entire region. It focuses on the intersection of community and economic development in the following areas: Prosperity, Livability, Adaptability, and Connectivity. The CEDS also provides a series of strategies that address challenges and opportunities related to numerous issues, including digital access.
Strategies to Bridge the Digital Divide
Local governments can employ strategies to increase access to digital tools and technologies. Below are three key components of local digital access strategies.
ENGAGE | stakeholders and members of the public who currently fall on the wrong side of the digital divide, as well as those who have the capacity to advance future efforts to bridge it.
EMPOWER | people to fully utilize and leverage the technology so that they are fully able to capitalize upon its benefits.
ENACT | lasting policies and programs that ensure real and tangible progress is made.
More detailed information on the above strategies can be found in Part Three of DVRPC’s Broadband series, Bridging the Digital Divide.
Additional Resources
- The Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA)
- Advisory Council on Historic Preservation: Broadband Infrastructure and Section 106 Review
- City of Philadelphia Cashless Retail Prohibition
- Comcast Lift Zones Program
- Federal Communications Commission Fixed Broadband Deployment Data
- Federal Communications Commission 5G FAST Plan
- Federal Communications Commission Telehealth Program FAQs
- Federal Highway Administration: Accelerating Broadband Infrastructure Deployment
- K-12 Bridge to Broadband Program
- National Conference of State Legislatures: States Use CARES Act Funds to Address the Digital Divide
- New Jersey Office of Information Technology
- Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development: Broadband Funding and Information Resources
- Temple University: Institute for Business and Information Technology
- DVRPC Municipal Implementation Tool #24: Zoning for Wireless Service Utilities