Level of Government

The Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), a division of the MassTech Collaborative, and the Baker-Polito Administration are proud to announce the launch of two new programs focused on bridging digital equity gaps in the Commonwealth: the Digital Equity Partnerships Program and the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program.

Unlike other advertisements for goods and services, there are no federally set standards for measuring broadband service speeds. This means there is no clear way to tell whether customers are getting what they pay for. To protect consumers, the FCC will need to invest in building a set of broadband speed measures, maps, and public data repositories that enables researchers to access and analyze what the public actually experiences when people purchase broadband connectivity.

The Federal Communications Commission announces the release of Data Specifications for Bulk Fixed Availability Challenge and Crowdsource Data, which provides guidance as to the requirements in the FCC's rules and orders for filing bulk challenges, as well as bulk crowdsource information, to the fixed broadband availability data that will be published on the FCC’s Broadband Maps as part of the new Broadband Data Collection (BDC). The Data Specifications for Bulk Fixed Availability Challenge and Crowdsource Data, which also explains how to make the required filings in the BDC system, is avail

As America’s kids get back to school and continue to recover from the challenges of the pandemic, ensuring that all families have access to affordable high-speed internet is more important than ever. That’s why President Biden and Vice President Harris worked with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to create the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Biden-Harris Administration’s “Back to School” enrollment drive includes:

American government civic leaders continue to prioritize digital inclusion and digital equity. In Boston (MA), elected officials, and tech leaders are collaborating to expand the scope of digital equity by making sure all residents have high-speed Internet, devices, and digital skills training. Additionally, Boston has a new focus; specifically, the City has broadened the scope of the work to also include looking at how technology can ease barriers toward equity for different groups.

When broadband fails to reach indigenous tribes, the result is not only a lack of connectivity but also a scarcity of data that essentially masks their needs from the government. The digital divide disproportionately affects underserved populations, and for Tribal communities, it is exacerbated by jurisdictional challenges, geographic coverage limitations, and a lack of affordability, said Traci Morris, executive director of the American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI).

Gov Greg Abbott (R-TX) was recently in Laredo (TX) touting his efforts to get the roughly 7 million Texans without broadband access online, something he deemed an emergency item in the last legislative session. But Abbott’s Democratic challenger, Beto O'Rourke (D-TX), has been hammering him for vetoing a bill that would have shored up state funding used to build and maintain phone lines that carry broadband service in rural areas.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit against Amazon alleging that the company stifled competition and caused increased prices across California through anticompetitive contracting practices in violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law and Cartwright Act. In order to avoid competing on prices with other online e-commerce sites, Amazon requires merchants to enter into agreements that severely penalize them if their products are offered for a lower price off-Amazon. In the lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta alleges that these agreements thwart the ability of other onli

The Building a New Digital Economy (BAND-NC) initiative was announced in February 2020 to address the challenges of broadband adoption across North Carolina, and to spark long-term planning efforts to bridge the digital divide.

Until recently, the only source for broadband availability data was the Form 477 data collected (since 2014) by the Federal Communications Commission. These data are collected by the FCC from broadband providers at the census block level (averaging about 20 homes). Under an “all-in” assumption, a census block is deemed to have broadband (at a specified speed threshold) if a provider serves (or could serve in a few months) a single location within the block. This assumption tends, of course, to overstate broadband availability.