Infrastructure

Infrastructure refers to the fundamental facilities and systems that serve a country, region, or community. Large-scale infrastructure is often built by the public sector and supported through taxation. Private companies or municipal governments may frequently build infrastructure on a smaller scale. Infrastructure improvement projects can be sponsored publicly, privately, or through public-private partnerships. Infrastructure is commonly classified as either hard or soft.

The physical assemblage of structures such as roads, bridges, tunnels, and trains is referred to as complex infrastructure. Soft infrastructure refers to the services necessary to meet a population's economic, health, and social demands. In 2021, President Biden's Build Back Better Plan emphasized soft infrastructure measures, including tuition-free community college. AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, Spectrum, and 16 other carriers will provide qualifying low-income families high-speed internet services of at least 100 megabits per second "for no more than $30/month" in 2022. The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, approved in 2021, allots $1.2 trillion to restore roads, bridges, water infrastructure, internet, and other infrastructure.