Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is too smart and energetic to be just the vice president, a position with few official responsibilities. I’d love to see President-elect Joe Biden give her a more important job: his de facto secretary of rural development, in charge of closing the opportunity gap, the connectivity gap, the learning gap, the start-up gap — and the anger and alienation gap — between rural America and the rest of the country. On policy specifics, the Biden-Harris team should commit that in four years every rural community in America will have access to broadband — the basic infrastructure needed for an inclusive modern economy. But while better connectivity is necessary, it’s not sufficient. “We also need to ensure investment in digital skills training in rural communities and incentives for tech companies to hire remote workers in small towns,” said Matt Dunne, founder of the Center on Rural Innovation. “Today rural America represents 15 percent of the nation’s work force, but only 5 percent of digital economy jobs of the future. But the pandemic has opened people’s eyes to the idea that digital economy jobs can be created anywhere.” Kamala Harris is a natural for that task. Who better to bridge Silicon Valley and the rural valleys of America?

Gov JB Pritzker (D-IL) and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced a first of its kind initiative in Illinois to expand digital access for low-income households throughout the state. Through a unique partnership with PCs for People, a national nonprofit providing refurbished devices, Cook County, and numerous other community partners, the State of Illinois will launch a statewide network to deploy refurbished computers, digital literacy programming and workforce development. The new Connect Illinois Computer Equity Network aims to put computers and other mobile devices into the hands of Illinois residents - assisting more families with access to high speed internet that is essential for e-learning, remote work, telehealth, and more.

To further expand digital access across the state, Gov Pritzker issued call to action to public, private, and philanthropic sectors to donate used equipment and build on a network already set to deploy at least 20,000 refurbished computers annually for Illinois families. The statewide network will include two central warehouse locations - one in southern Cook County and the other in the Metro East Region. Each centralized warehouse location will receive, refurbish, and redistribute computers for use by low-income households around the state. While the Metro East hub has been active since September, a new lease agreement with Cook County will allow PCs for People and the state to launch the second warehouse center in Jan 2021.

US broadband growth continued to surge through the third quarter of 2020, but "pull-forward" growth driven by the ongoing pandemic will likely lead to a slowdown in 2021, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett predicted in a new report. According to the report, the US broadband market finished Q3 2020 with a penetration rate of 84%. Thanks to US cable's continued strong showing, the 4.7% growth rate for the entire domestic broadband industry in Q3 2020 was the fastest in about a decade, Moffett noted. But where all of those subscribers are coming from (wireless-only households, satellite broadband or new household formation) during this crazy period is not crystal clear. Several operators, including Atlantic Broadband and Cable One, have been offering temporary low-cost broadband options during the pandemic, but that's likely still not the main driver. Moffett believes the rise in fixed broadband penetration probably came through a combination of all these doors to various degrees. "The pandemic hasn't meaningfully increased the availability of broadband, but for some, it likely has made it more affordable or more relevant," Moffett explained. "It is not unreasonable to argue that, in a market where penetration stands at 84%, any acceleration in achieving incremental penetration of what's left can be thought of as a pull-forward."

Known for its deep roots in music and unforgettable food, Memphis is also known for its long-standing digital divide. Broadband connectivity has always been elusive to segments of Memphis’ population, a reality that has crippled their ability to adapt when COVID-19 encroached into their neighborhoods. Remote learning and work from home mandates have, since, forced connectivity challenges onto the priority lists of local government leaders. Meanwhile, community leaders and private sector partners have acquired critical support to expand broadband access and boost adoption. To gain background information on the state of connectivity and ongoing efforts being employed in Memphis, a researcher from the Next Century Cities team conducted interviews with Memphis stakeholders who are working to bridge the City’s digital divide.

A coalition of state attorneys general sued Google, accusing the search giant of operating an illegal digital-advertising monopoly, in part thanks to an auction-rigging deal with rival Facebook. The complaint, filed in US District Court in Texas, alleges that Facebook emerged in 2017 as a powerful new rival to the Alphabet unit’s established dominance in the market for online advertising. In response, the complaint says, Google initiated a deal with the social-media company that allowed the search giant to preserve its commanding position in a key segment of the online ad market, while guaranteeing Facebook would win a certain share of Google-run ad auctions. Google denied engaging in any anticompetitive behavior and repeated its stance that it operates in highly competitive markets.

In advance of the Supreme Court's Jan. 19 oral argument on the Federal Communications Commission's 2017 broadcast ownership deregulation decision, opponents of that FCC decision have briefed the court on their position that a federal appeals court was correct in vacating and remanding the decision back to the FCC with the instruction to "do its homework." The Prometheus Radio Project, Common Cause, and a host of others (including the Benton Institute) filed a joint brief explaining why the appeals court stay was justified and why the FCC should have to show the court how the FCC's deregulatory moves did not adversely affect diversity in broadcasting. They said the FCC, if it is going to profess a commitment to diversity, which it has, must "reasonably" implement that commitment--and explain to the court how its deregulation moves further that, something they say the FCC has not done, but could and should.

Almost 200,000 “forgotten homes” across the UK are being left behind in the government’s digital revolution, unable to get broadband speeds deemed the minimum to meet a modern family’s needs. The telecoms regulator Ofcom has said that 190,000 mostly rural homes and offices, about 0.6% of all properties, still cannot access “decent” broadband speeds of at least 10Mbps. This is the minimum speed deemed necessary to cope with modern needs, from downloading a film on Sky to streaming music or TV services from Netflix to Disney+. Ofcom’s annual Connected Nations report estimates that there are 119,000 premises in England that cannot get access to decent broadband. The figure is 34,000 in Scotland, 18,000 in Wales and 19,000 in Northern Ireland.