Marginalized Populations

Great Plains Communications (GPC) has been awarded a total of $3.54M as one of the winning bids through the Nebraska Public Service Commission’s (PSC) 2024 Reverse Auction to expand broadband access to more than 1,100 households in unserved areas of Nebraska. GPC’s funding will assist in providing high-speed fiber broadband services to approximately 310 unserved households in rural areas of Columbus, Hebron, Kearney, Madison, Mead, Monroe, Nebraska City, Palmer, Seward and Superior, Nebraska.

Mediacom is proving that even though it's a cable and fiber provider, it's happy to use fixed wireless access (FWA), too. Mediacom will use Tarana’s next-generation fixed wireless access (ngFWA) broadband technology in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina—states where it’s won funding from the Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). The operator’s required RDOF buildout target is 5,694 locations, said Thomas Larsen, Mediacom’s SVP of government and public relations.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has been a transformative force, empowering nearly 23 million American households in rural and urban communities with reliable, high-speed, and affordable broadband access. To continue this progress, I implore my colleagues to join me by signing the discharge petition. This will ensure the Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act receives the vote it deserves on the floor of the House of Representatives. We cannot turn our back on the progress made in closing the digital divide.

In Fort Collins, Colorado, residents have a unique option when signing up for internet service. Instead of being limited to giant providers like Comcast, Charter or Cox, they can opt for a city-owned and operated service, called Connexion. Connexion's genesis took place about a decade ago, when the city was looking for ways to bring faster, more affordable internet to the community. In November 2017, voters approved a ballot measure to build a municipal fiber network.

The Federal Communications Commission announced the maximum partial reimbursement amounts for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) benefits passed through to ACP households by providers who elect to claim reimbursement for the May 2024 service month. Absent additional funding from Congress, April 2024 will be the last month for which ACP households can receive the full ACP benefit. The maximum reimbursement amounts for May 2024 will be $14 for Non-Tribal Service, $35 for Tribal Lands Sevice, and $47 for the ACP Connected Device Benefit.

The federal Digital Equity Act and the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program will collectively send more than $1 billion to Illinois, and state officials have been working for more than a year to lay out their roadmap for implementation. The State Digital Equity Plan describes how Illinois officials envision supporting broadband adoption, digital devices, and digital skills, while the BEAD 

The Maine Connectivity Authority awarded two grants to connect hard-to-reach locations in Fayette and Wilton with access to affordable, quality, high-speed internet. The Town of Fayette, in cooperation with Consolidated Communications, will receive a Connect the Ready grant of $1,875,000 to reach approximately 440 homes and businesses. The town of Wilton, also in collaboration with Consolidated Communications, will receive a Reach Me grant of $311,000 to connect approximately 169 hard-to-reach locations requiring underground infrastructure.

With the future of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) looking grimmer every day, wireless operators and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are preparing for its demise and weighing their alternatives. The ACP is expected to run out of money by mid-May, leaving millions of Americans without discounted internet services.

In a field focused on maps and megabytes, speed and latency, those of us working to realize universal, equitable broadband can sometimes lose sight of what connectivity can mean for people’s day-to-day lives. Today, we are launching some phenomenal research by EveryoneOn CEO Norma E. Fernandez that not only expertly applies the tools of in-depth, careful, and closely observed, qualitative research, but does so to focus on often overlooked groups—low-income African American/Black and Latina women.

In August 2020, during the heart of the covid-19 pandemic when many schools were closed, social media and news outlets were awash with a picture of two grade school students sitting outside of a Taco Bell, attempting to do their schoolwork.