As a nonprofit dedicated to guiding communities into the connected future, US Ignite partnered with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to design Project OVERCOME to test creative solutions to connect the unconnected. The
project’s design ensured careful consideration of both the technical requirements of broadband access and the community collaboration, outreach, and engagement needed to explore sustainable success. US Ignite selected communities to build proof-of-concept networks - including fiber, fixed wireless, and wireless deployments - across a mix of rural and urban communities. Selected communities received funding to deploy a novel solution to connect unserved and underserved areas and measure the project’s social impact. The project aimed to understand the strengths and weaknesses of novel broadband solutions that communities can deploy to expand their reach. Project OVERCOME illustrated successes across rural and urban communities, bridging the digital divide with a variety of technologies. With financial support and input from the NSF and Schmidt Futures, participants expanded job opportunities, increased access to health and educational resources, and strengthened community ties. This report celebrates the successes of the projects and the human stories behind those connections.

The old definition of a broadband passing is quickly growing obsolete and the Federal Communications Commission's mapping effort is missing the way that America really uses broadband today. After a decade of talking about the inadequate FCC broadband maps, we finally decided to throw money at the issue and devise new maps. But in the decade it took to move forward, we’ve developed multiple non-traditional uses for broadband, a trend that is likely to expand. If we are really trying to define our national need for broadband, we need to somehow make sure that the locations that drive the economy are connected to broadband. And the only way to do that is to count these locations and put them on the broadband map, so somebody tries to serve them. The current maps are doing a disservice by ignoring the huge number of these non-traditional broadband connections.

Nearly 172,000 Chicago households (over 15%) don’t have internet at home, and nearly 92,000 (roughly 8%) don’t have any device, including a computer, laptop, tablet, or smart mobile device. These disparities became more evident than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools, workplaces, and many parts of life shifted from in-person to remote, creating an unprecedented reliance on technology and connectivity. In May 2022, Mayor Lightfoot launched the Chicago Digital Equity Council (DEC), a crosssector, community-driven effort to understand and overcome the nuanced barriers to digital equity by engaging those most burdened by digital inequities. Supported by a team of community partners and government agencies, the DEC facilitated community conversations in Chicago’s least connected neighborhoods, ultimately developing the community-driven, cross-sector recommendations outlined in this plan.

Governor Kim Reynolds (R-IA) and the Department of Management’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) announced the release of an Invitation to Qualify (ITQ) for communities in need of future broadband investment.  The ITQ process allows communities to propose areas across the state of Iowa that should be prioritized by the OCIO in the next Empower Rural Iowa broadband grant opportunity. Areas identified by communities through the ITQ process will become Broadband Intervention Zones. Providers who apply for Empower Rural Iowa grant funds to construct service within these Broadband Intervention Zones may be eligible to receive enhanced incentives and higher prioritization for funding. Since 2018, the OCIO has coordinated the Empower Rural Iowa Grant program to accelerate broadband expansion in unserved and underserved locations across the state of Iowa. Through seven grant opportunities, $352,850,022 in state and federal funding was awarded to bring broadband service to 109,126 homes, schools and businesses in Iowa. The total new broadband investment between public and private money is $791,203,995. 

Gigi Sohn is gay. She’s also a highly qualified nominee for the Federal Communications Commission with decades of experience as a public interest advocate working on issues of affordable broadband access, net neutrality, and closing the digital divide. More than 375 organizations, companies, elected officials, and local governments have voiced their support for Gigi Sohn’s [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] confirmation as an FCC Commissioner. But while deeply controversial nominees with massive conflicts of interest like Ajit Pai and Nathan Simington sailed through Senate approval, Sohn’s nomination has languished for more than two years. She’s been the target of a coordinated, dark money smear campaign. Now right-wing news outlets, emboldened by the Internet Service Provider-funded smears, have crossed the line: They’ve launched a new round of blatantly homophobic attacks on Gigi that recycle QAnon and extreme right tropes conflating LGBTQ identity with deviance and predation. The far right are telling us exactly who they are. If this homophobic smear campaign succeeds, it will become the go-to strategy for sinking the confirmation of any future LGBTQ nominee.  If they don’t speak out immediately and make it clear that they will stand strong against these attacks and confirm Gigi Sohn as quickly as possible, Democratic leaders are telling us who they are, too. If they remain silent, they are actively aiding and abetting weaponized homophobia, while helping the greedy internet service provider monopolies, like Comcast and AT&T, avoid oversight. Our community won’t forget that when Democrats tell us they will protect our rights. Or when they ask for our votes in the future.

[Evan Greer is a transgender activist, writer, and musician based in Boston. Yvette Scorse is a queer advocate for digital equity and communications director at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.]