Friday, June 4, 2021
Headlines Daily Digest
NTIA Announces Nearly $1 Billion in Funding to Expand Broadband on Tribal Land
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A look at Wisconsin's efforts to transform farms with broadband
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Digital Equity
Smartphone ownership (85%) and home broadband subscriptions (77%) have increased among American adults since 2019 – from 81% and 73% respectively. Though modest, both increases are statistically significant and come at a time when a majority of Americans say the internet has been important to them personally. And 91% of adults report having at least one of these technologies. A Pew Research Center survey also finds that some Americans have difficulties when trying to go online. Some 30% of adults say they often or sometimes experience problems connecting to the internet at home, including 9% who say such problems happen often. Still, a majority of Americans say these connection troubles occur rarely (41%) or never (21%).
While there has been slight growth in the share who say they subscribe to high-speed internet, about a quarter of the population still does not have a broadband internet connection at home. And broadband non-adopters continue to cite financial constraints as one of the most important reasons why they forgo these services. Among non-broadband users, 45% say a reason why they do not have broadband at home is that the monthly cost of a home broadband subscription is too expensive, while about four-in-ten (37%) say the same about the cost of a computer. Beyond cost barriers, a little fewer than half of non-users cite having other options for internet access or the fact that their smartphone does everything online they need as a reason why they do not have a high-speed internet connection at home. Other major findings in this new survey:
- Smartphone dependency: Some 15% of U.S. adults are “smartphone-only” internet users – that is, they have a smartphone, but do not have a home broadband connection.
- Interest in getting broadband: Fully 71% of non-broadband users say they are not interested in having such a connection at home.
Some 15% of home broadband users in the US say they have had trouble paying for their high-speed internet service during the coronavirus outbreak. That includes 34% of those with household incomes of less than $30,000 a year. A quarter of home broadband users with annual household incomes ranging from $30,000 to just under $50,000 say they have had trouble doing so in the pandemic, as have roughly one-in-ten (8%) with household incomes ranging from $50,000 to $74,999. There are also differences by Americans’ educational attainment. Some 22% of broadband users who have a high school diploma or less have had trouble paying for this service. A similar share (16%) of those who have some college education, but do not have a degree, say the same. By comparison, a smaller share of college graduates (8%) have had trouble paying for high-speed internet service.
Some 15% of smartphone owners say they have had trouble paying for their cellphone service during the pandemic. That includes 36% in households earning less than $30,000 annually and 24% in households earning $30,000 to $49,999. Among those who are “smartphone dependent” for their internet connectivity – that is, people who own a smartphone, but do not subscribe to broadband at home – 27% say they have had trouble paying for their cellphone service amid COVID-19.
Microsoft said that it's expanding its Airband program, which was initially designed to connect rural areas, to eight cities: Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, El Paso, Texas, and Memphis. Along with enabling inexpensive broadband, Microsoft will make devices more affordable by providing free and low-cost refurbished computers and tablets to communities of color through partners like PCs for People, Human-I-T and PlanITROI, a company whose Digital Dreams Project provides refurbished devices to K-12 students in need. Microsoft plans to support efforts to teach community members digital skills.
Electricity transformed rural America nearly a century ago. Now, millions of people on farms and in small towns desperately need broadband.
At a time when people can work remotely and run businesses from practically anywhere, the internet should be a boon to the rural economy. Not only could it keep Wisconsin's signature farming industry connected, it could help curb population losses in small towns, where many young people feel they must leave for opportunities elsewhere. Yet a significant portion of rural Wisconsin — if it has access to the internet at all — lacks access at broadband speeds, meaning a connection of at least 25 megabit per second downloads and 3 Mbps uploads. For them, ordinary tasks such as posting a video on a website are all but impossible. State officials have estimated that 430,000 people — a quarter of the rural population — lack broadband. In nine counties — Ashland, Clark, Douglas, Iron, Marinette, Price, Richland, Rusk and Taylor — less than half of the rural population had access to broadband speeds in 2019. "The problem isn't just the lack of connections. It's the lack of good connections," said Jonathan Sallet, a senior fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.
Infrastructure
Department of Commerce’s NTIA Announces Nearly $1 Billion in Funding to Expand Broadband on Tribal Land
Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced at the White House the availability of nearly $1 billion in US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) grants to expand broadband access and adoption on Tribal land. The leaders called for significant broadband investments in the American Jobs Plan to make affordable high-speed internet available to all Americans.
The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program was established by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. Grants will be made available to eligible Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian entities for broadband deployment as well as for digital inclusion, workforce development, telehealth and distance learning. NTIA is seeking infrastructure projects that expand the availability of broadband services on Tribal lands and prioritize deploying broadband infrastructure to unserved households, as required by the Act. The program also invites proposals that address the digital divide on Tribal lands, including broadband and digital inclusion planning, telehealth, education, training staff and Tribal community members, and providing technical support and capacity building for Tribal institutions.
More information about the program, including requirements for grant applications, can be found in the Notice of Funding Opportunity. NTIA is also holding a series of webinars to further inform the public about the program. The next Tribal Broadband Connectivity webinars will be held on June 16 and 17.
The G20 has worked diligently to catalyze private sector investment in infrastructure. This work is now more important than ever as governments divert resources towards COVID-19 recovery, and the US is committed to doing its part. First, to help address the investment gap here in the US, the Biden-Harris Administration has proposed a plan to invest $1.7 trillion in public finance over the next 10 years. These investments will modernize 20,000 miles of highways and roads, expand the country's broadband infrastructure – and most importantly, they will help catalyze significant private-sector investment in infrastructure and green technologies.
AT&T Communications CEO Jeff McElfresh highlighted the potential for the operator to boost average revenue per user (ARPU) by offering multi-gigabit capabilities on its fiber infrastructure, shedding more light on an ambitious network expansion plan. AT&T bumped up speeds on its lower broadband tiers to 300 Mbps and 500 Mbps, and currently offers a 1-gig plan as its premium service. McElfresh said it could add even more options to the table, noting its fiber assets are “multi-gig enabled.” That gives AT&T the opportunity to “now begin to offer different speed tiers and different use categories across that fiber network to provide for some price discrimination, to help us grow our ARPU [average revenue per user] as we grow our penetration in that fiber,” he said. His comments follow a statement from AT&T Broadband EVP and GM Rick Welday in April, who said he expected most broadband speed tiers to climb above 1 gig over time. Neither executive offered a timeline for when AT&T might begin offering multi-gig service.
In Spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to hybrid and remote learning for most schools turned what was once a “homework gap” into a “learning opportunity gap” as devices and internet access became necessary in order to keep students connected and learning. The purpose of this brief is to present strategies for deploying off-campus wireless networks as a sustainable solution to provide home connectivity to all students and educators. This brief shows how school districts have taken diverse approaches to build off-campus wireless networks. Off-campus wireless networks offer a possible long-term approach to solving the home connectivity gap. They may not be a viable solution in all districts; however, we hope the examples highlighted in this brief contribute to the discussion of sustainable, long-term solutions for providing equitable access to high-quality education.
The six models highlighted in the brief include:
- ACPS@Home, Albemarle County Public Schools, Albemarle, VA
- Northeast Nebraska Tribal Education Broadband Service, Nebraska Indian Community College (NICC), Northeast NE
- ICOE BorderLink Infrastructure Initiative, Imperial County Office of Education, Imperial County, CA
- LUSD Community Wi-Fi Network, Lindsay Unified School District, Lindsay, CA
- Livewire ConnectME Program, Boulder Valley School District, Boulder, CO
- FUSD Personalized Learning Initiative, Fresno Unified School District, Fresno, CA
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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