Digital Divide

A lot of folks have been pleading with the Federal Communications Commission to pick up the tab to continue the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Folks are assuming that the FCC has the ability to take on the ACP program inside the Universal Service Fund.

Streamlining and accelerating the permitting process is critical to implementing the Internet for All initiative. Since the passage of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that provided a historic $65 billion investment to expand affordable and reliable high-speed Internet access to everyone in America, we heard from stakeholders that permitting is a significant concern in implementing the program.

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps' (CHR&R) 2024 National Findings Report highlights the importance of civic infrastructure and spaces to connect and be informed, with a focus on access to local news, broadband internet and public libraries. CHR&R calls attention to structural barriers like policies, laws and practices that can create obstacles to forms of participation such as voting and worker unionizing. Key findings include:

After Puerto Rico obtained a $127 million disbursement from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bring fixed connectivity to 100% of Puerto Rico's households, $334 million was added from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Development (BEAD) program, which will be used mainly for telecommunications resiliency.

Ohio has “very competitive” and “aggressive” broadband providers, which bodes well for the state’s goal of making broadband available statewide, said Peter Voderberg, chief for BroadbandOhio. He points to the fact that the state received applications requesting a total of $780 million when it made $77 million available for rural broadband deployments using funding from the federal Capital Projects Fund.  Voderberg has an extensive history working within Ohio’s state government and was serving as a policy advisor to Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) before establishing BroadbandOhio, ironically a

The Mississippi broadband office is responding to allegations raised by a legal organization that claims the state is failing to conduct equitable local coordination and outreach with underrepresented communities in preparation of allocating $1.2 billion to expand broadband infrastructure.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau announced that RiverStreet Communications of North Carolina has notified the FCC that it will not fulfill its commitment to offer voice and broadband service to certain census block groups (CBGs) within its Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II auction supported service area in North Carolina. In addition, Cebridge Telecom LA and Cable One VoIP LLC d/b/a Sparklight have notified the FCC of their decisions to withdraw from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support program in all the CBGs covered by their authorized win

Up until last year, Nancy Navarro didn’t know how to check her kids’ grades or schedule online appointments. She had Wi-Fi at home so her 15 and 11-year-old kids could do their homework on their school-issued laptops, but she wasn’t online herself very often. But then she noticed that her kids’ school was offering free digital training classes through the local nonprofit EveryoneOn, which aims to connect as many underserved people as possible on the internet.

According to the 2022 federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, "digital discrimination" involves determining who gets broadband access “based on income level, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.” As an example, some neighborhoods in cities get faster broadband speeds than those in poorer neighborhoods, creating a two-tiered effect. Nationally, the Federal Communications Commission has been empowered by Congress to handle digital discrimination complaints, which provides some remedy for those who find themselves on this new wrong side of the digital divide.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has now accepted digital equity plans from all 50 States, DC, and Puerto Rico.