Digital Divide

The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program continues to have a positive impact on many communities nationwide, but persistent challenges to accessing the benefit limit full participation.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott laid out the priorities and process for distributing the $641 million Baltimore City will receive as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to the community. Broadband and small businesses figure to play a key role in the plans. With the investment in broadband, Baltimore City is further prioritizing internet connectivity at a time when the City’s yawning digital divide

Charter Communications announced the launch of Spectrum Community Assist, a $30 million, five-year philanthropic initiative to revitalize community centers in rural and urban areas and invest in job training programs in underserved communities across the company’s 41-state footprint. Through Spectrum Community Assist, Charter will partner with national and local nonprofit organizations to identify and improve centers in need of support.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, of the nearly $3.2 billion in available funds for the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program only $378 million has been allocated so far. That leaves more than $2.7 billion still available to help low-income households get broadband service at a reduced cost, according to the FCC tracker page.

Acting Federal Communications Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said she’s pleased that the Senate infrastructure deal would codify the pandemic relief program known as the Emergency Broadband Benefit — but she is wary about one provision that would slash the monthly internet subsidy by 40 percent. “I do think it would be challenging for the agency to reduce the support from $50 a month to $30 a month,” she said.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau, in conjunction with the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force and the Office of Economics and Analytics, authorized Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support for 466 identified winning bids. The FCC will also soon post a state-level summary on the Auction 904 webpage.

The head of the Federal Communications Commission left the door open to taking further actions to ensure everyone has broadband access — including price regulation and combating digital redlining. Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said at Politico's Tech Summit that the FCC is “laser-like focused on getting this service to everyone, everywhere,” and that it is trying to take a broader approach to the issue than the agency had in the past.

Broadband access is a critical component of high-quality education. Connecting “last-mile” rural communities will require smart policies to make certain investments in broadband infrastructure are maximized for actual and timely deployment so that our truly unserved students and communities receive broadband access without delay. This includes pole access reform; the complex and costly process for broadband providers to attach to utility poles is one of the single greatest barriers to rural broadband deployment.

Rep A Donald McEachin (D-VA) and Sen Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) introduced the Device Access for Every American Act to ensure more Americans can afford connected devices (S.2729) (H.R.5257). While computer access is nearly ubiquitous amongst high-income households, 40 percent of low-income adults lack a desktop or laptop computer.

New York State has made great progress building broadband infrastructure and ranks second in the country for the share of population with access to basic broadband speeds. However, there are still over 250,000 New Yorkers for whom broadband service is unavailable in their neighborhood, and even more for whom broadband is unavailable in their home or place of business.