Low-income

In January 2020, former-Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NY) announced New York City’s Internet Master Plan, setting a path to deliver broadband for low-income New Yorkers by investing in public fiber infrastructure.

As Los Angeles County officials work with community coalitions to improve high-speed Internet access in underserved communities across the region, the Digital Equity LA Summit focused on the challenges ahead: urging state officials to fix the broadband priority maps the state will use to target where to invest $2 billion in state broadband grant funds with the state months away from receiving over a billion additional dollars from the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. Representing the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) were Michael Mullaney, Preside

The Federal Communications Commission recently opened a docket, at the prompting of federal legislation, that asks for examples of digital discrimination. The big cable companies and telecoms are all going to swear they don’t discriminate against anybody for any reason, and every argument they make will be pure bosh. If people decide to respond to this FCC docket, we’ll see more evidence of discrimination based on income. We might even get some smoking gun evidence that some of the discrimination comes from corporate bias based on race and other factors.

Low-income multifamily communities or those with a high percentage of unserved residents are now eligible to receive broadband deployment funding from Congress, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) reaffirmed this eligibility.  Each state is now building out its programs and establishing criteria that build upon federal priorities and requirements. This is a critical next step in ensuring the total and efficient disbursement of these funds.

Verizon’s all-digital Visible prepaid brand is trying to give back to communities, and one way is through Connection Protection, a new program designed to help people keep a wireless connection when they’re laid off. The program provides three months of free Visible service to people who qualify through its partner, Empower Work, a non-profit providing resources for people who are laid off.

T-Mobile is expanding its participation in the federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) through its Lifeline Assistance brand – Assurance Wireless. Lifeline is a Federal Communications Commission program for low-income consumers, which provides a discount on qualifying monthly phone and broadband services. T-Mobile said that it is offering ACP in seven more states, bringing the total number to 48 states and the District of Columbia.

Some low-income households in New York City will receive free broadband internet under a plan announced by Mayor Eric Adams (D-NY) during his State of the City address. Households with Section 8 vouchers in the Bronx and northern Manhattan boroughs of the city will be part of a pilot program that gives them access to free broadband. Pilot participants will be provided with access through the creation of a wireless mesh network.

In his first State of the Commonwealth address in January 2020, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) asked lawmakers to address some stark realities. At the time, Kentucky was the third poorest state by per capita income and over 1 in 5 children in the state lived in poverty. The state ranked in the top eight of states in terms of hunger. Kentucky had some of the highest child abuse and neglect rates in the country.

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Supervisor Holly Mitchell released a map of priority locations where Los Angeles County will build low-cost internet for households in the Second District. Supervisor Mitchell made the announcement in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Internal Services Department (ISD), which is Los Angeles County’s lead on digital equity, during a free laptop giveaway event at the Willowbrook Library.