The focus on race seems to be mostly coming from commenters here. The definition of digital discrimination in the rule reads "Policies or practices, not justified by genuine issues of technical or economic feasibility, that (1) differentially impact consumers’ access to broadband internet access service based on their income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion or national origin or (2) are intended to have such differential impact."

Racial discrimination and redlining correlating with poor access to broadband was a factor in the analysis, but they also looked at rural/urban access splits and income disparity related lack of access too.

I haven't read through the whole thing yet, it's very long, but the emphasis seems to be on forcing telecoms to build out access in areas that are historically underserved when the reason is they would make less money (different than 'at a loss') rather than serving an area with existing access that might present better margins.

> The focus on race seems to be mostly coming from commenters here.

The linked article starts by drawing comparisons to redlining in the very first paragraph.

The article uses the comparison, but the actual FCC rule and approach is not entirely race based as multiple commenters seem to be framing it.

I very much doubt that focusing on race will help the more rural areas.