Digital Divide

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) announced $34.6 million in grants to 15 Minnesota cities and counties from the Small Cities Coronavirus Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG-CV). As part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Minnesota received a special allocation to address community needs to prevent, prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The best broadband, it's generally agreed, is an affordable connection that supports the needs of consumers and businesses for many years into the future. It's not unreasonable to achieve because fiber-optic cable, the industry's gold standard, has near limitless capabilities.

A new report found that teens believe unreliable broadband access contributes to economic and social inequities, perceptions of reduced career prospects, significantly lower digital literacy and less confidence in their future success. Teens reveal the drastic impact that slow internet speeds have on their opportunities and urge the government to pick up the pace toward universal broadband access. Key findings include:

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes $42.45 billion in funding for broadband networks, which, if passed, would reflect the government’s most significant commitment to date to addressing America’s broadband availability gap. While I applaud making states the locus of fund distribution, I question the choice of National Telecommunications and Information Administration rather than the Federal Communications Commission as the locus of oversight.

Cox Communications is working with local schools and libraries to help provide internet service through the Federal Communications Commission's Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) to help people get connected to what matters most. The ECF program is open to students, educational staff and library patrons who would otherwise lack a sufficient connection to the internet for remote learning and remote library services. ECF will provide funding to schools and libraries to deliver internet services to individuals and families they determine need an internet connection.

The FCC's Emergency Connectivity Fund is providing $7 billion worth of broadband and leading digital technology for two critical anchor institutions – libraries and schools. Three US Senators launched the BRIDGE Act to bring $40 billion to these and other anchor institutions. The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) opened a $122 billion grab bag of tech and non-tech funds.

Several satellite firms, including Elon Musk's SpaceX, Amazon's Project Kuiper and Bharti Airtel and the British Government's OneWeb, have made a beeline for the Indian market. A key reason is that 50 percent of India's vast population of around 1.3. billion is yet to be connected, mainly because of the high cost of setting up a network in rural areas with low returns spread over a long time.

Some of the Senate infrastructure bill's staunchest supporters say they are frustrated by what wasn’t included in the bill: provisions to encourage municipal broadband — Internet service that is partially or fully owned by local governments. Consumer advocacy and anti-monopoly groups say helping cities build their own Internet services is crucial for expanding connectivity nationwide, and they say it could also dramatically increase competition in areas where only a few major telecommunications companies dominate the market. Locally owned networks, proponents contend, aren’t driven by profi

President Biden’s bid to inject government deeper into the private sector is getting its first big test in the broadband industry. The $1 trillion infrastructure bill would wire communities across the country that companies haven’t reached and subsidize bills for low-income households. Private companies would be required to publish details about their products, much like nutrition labels, and offer low-cost service plans if they take federal funds to help build networks.

Tucson, Arizona has built a private wireless network to provide broadband to low-income households for free.