Digital Divide

There is an underreported threat looming if Congress doesn’t act soon: 21.5 million households in the U.S. could lose access to an affordable internet. The bipartisan Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) provides monthly subsidies for low-income Americans to get online. And it’s been a great success: the ACP has now connected nearly 60 million Americans to broadband, many of whom have never previously had internet access at home.

An estimated 475,000 households across Louisiana have never had high-speed, affordable, reliable internet. The state has been working at a "feverish pace" to change that. In all, Louisiana will receive nearly $2 billion for projects, including grants from the Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Treasury, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The state has drawn from a number of sources to improve access.

Released in October 2023, the Digital Access for All Idahoans (DAAI) Plan documents pervasive barriers to digital access and proposes a strategy to end digital access divides that prevent many Idahoans from accessing crucial technology. The DAAI plan aims to increase broadband affordability for Idahoans, as well as improve digital skills, cybersecurity awareness, access to devices, technical support, and access to public services. Idaho’s vision is to support all residents in thriving online through:

Access to an equal educational experience is a legal right in the U.S. With the overwhelming dependence of technology in today’s educational system, internet access should also be the legal right of every student.

When the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) suggested Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) grant rules, a lot of industry folks assumed that states would largely follow the NTIA suggestions and that there would be a lot of similarity in the BEAD grant rules between states. It turns out that the opposite is happening, and many State Broadband Offices are taking unique approaches. In this article, I compare the BEAD grant rules for Georgia and Illinois.

The Alabama Digital Expansion Division of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) has released a draft of the state's Digital Opportunity Plan, which details Alabama's vision of a connected, interconnected future.

Although the lack of broadband, transit, childcare and housing are all stacked against rural counties as they develop the kind of robust workforce that can attract business, planning and relationships between state and local government can help alleviate some of those challenges. That’s the assessment various practitioners in the workforce development field offered during the Rural Action Caucus Symposium in Greenbrier County (WV). West Virginia faces steep challenges in delivering broadband connectivity to residents, given both the population distribution and the geography. Without housing

State policymakers face a big test—how to best spend the almost $272 million the Commerce Department allocated from its Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program as well as the funding the state receives under the Digital Equity Act. Today I want to look ahead to 2024 and talk about three challenges that all states, including Maine, will face. I also want to suggest how states can meet these challenges to ensure that this once-in-a-lifetime funding secures fast, affordable and reliable broadband Internet access for every US household. 

An analysis of data collected for the FCC's newest Broadband Map shows that Cuyahoga County’s (OH) lowest-income neighborhoods are still far more likely than others to be stuck with old, slow, home “broadband” service from AT&T. Using December 2022 information provided by AT&T, together with Census tract household income data from the American Community Survey, Connect Your Community determined that for nearly half (48%) of all its serviceable locations in Cuyahoga County tracts with median annual household incomes below $35,000, AT&T reported maximum speeds below 25 Mbps down a

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program will fail if Congress doesn’t renew the Affordable Connectivity Program that states are relying on to connect low-income Americans. National Telecommunications and Information Agency Administrator Alan Davidson explained to Congress that the BEAD Program will be