1. Monthly archive
  2. May 2020

May 2020

Sponsor 

Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Ariadne Network

NetGain Partnership

Date 
Wed, 05/06/2020 - 17:00

As millions of homebound professionals, students, and more have become completely dependent on digital technologies to continue their lives and work, digital equity has never been more pressing. 141 million people in the US, nearly 43% of the population, don’t have home internet access at the FCC’s 25 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up broadband definition. While bridging the ‘digital divide’ is now imperative for remote work, education, and telehealth, the recent COVID-19 stimulus act did not address the need for internet access, raising the stakes for future relief bills.


FCC Certifies First IP Captioned Telephone Service Using Only Automatic Speech Recognition

The Federal Communications Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau granted conditional certification to MachineGenius to provide Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Service (IP CTS) using only automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology. This is the first such grant and provides an opportunity for advanced technology to meet the FCC’s high reliability standards in providing captioned telephone service for deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans.

Parking Lots Have Become a Digital Lifeline

The dependence on Wi-Fi in parking lots shows the lengths to which people are going to combat the country’s digital divide, one of the most stubborn problems in technology — and one the coronavirus has exacerbated. In recent weeks, numerous federal lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, have pushed for legislation to make service more affordable, especially for families with school-age children. But such legislative pushes have happened in the past without ever crossing the finish line.

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