Located on the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico, Loíza is one of the most culturally rich municipalities on the island. Known as the “Capital of Traditions,” the area gave birth to many African-influenced traditions that are now synonymous with Puerto Rican culture. As home to the largest population of Black residents on the island, Loíza has a rich cultural heritage that is threatened by high unemployment, extreme poverty, and violence. In fact, Loíza’s unemployment rate is triple the national average, and nearly half of all residents live below the poverty line. To deliver De Puente A Puente (From Bridge to Bridge), Libraries Without Borders US (LWB US)—along with project partners Link Puerto Rico (Link PR), the Municipality of Loíza, Information Technology Disaster Resource Center (ITDRC), Cultura Activa, PAYE (Piñones Aprende Y Emprende), and other local organizations and community leaders—is providing broadband service in three neighborhoods of Loíza. In each of these neighborhoods—Sector La 23 y Las Gardenias, Piñones, and Tocones—LWB US is outfitting community centers with Wi-Fi using 4G and 5G cellular hotspots to connect residents directly to digital tools as well as health and digital literacy training.

The Rural Wireless Association (RWA) filed an ex parte to apprise the Federal Communications Commission of the results of RWA’s member survey concerning the ongoing impact of the 3G sunset on rural consumers, and of the need for the carriers to implement Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE) roaming before 3G is shut down nationwide. RWA carrier members across the country are receiving reports from their rural customers of degraded or nonexistent 3G coverage in advance of the 3G sunset deadlines announced by nationwide carriers. RWA’s survey found that these 3G shutdowns have a particularly harmful impact on certain categories of subscribers, namely, ranchers and farmers traveling to larger market areas outside of their home carrier’s service areas, and senior citizens who have not upgraded their handsets due to fixed incomes when they travel beyond the reach of their home carrier’s network. RWA supports the relief requested in the Alarm Industry Communications Committee’s (AICC) emergency petition and adds that the FCC mandate that all three nationwide carriers delay their planned 3G sunset until December 31, 2022.  By granting AICC’s request, both the alarm industry and rural carriers serving rural Americans will have more time to transition.

Reps Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI) introduced a bipartisan resolution (H.Res.721) that calls on technology companies to help empower parents to better protect their children from inappropriate content on digital applications. The resolution calls on leading technology and app development companies to establish an industry-run rating board to streamline age-appropriate app ratings, user-friendly parental controls, digital wellness features, and other tools to foster a safe, online environment for the millions of children who use apps daily. Two major barriers prevent parents from more effectively protecting children from malicious online content: the ratings of apps on devices and their descriptions are often inaccurate, inconsistent, or insufficiently detailed, and parental controls are overly complex and often depend on “ratings” self-assigned by app developers. This bipartisan resolution would take a necessary first step toward more effective parental engagement with digital media by calling on technology and app development companies to establish a rating board comprised of industry representatives and child development, child protection, and internet safety subject matter experts to fix app ratings and descriptions of the most downloaded apps.