Digital Divide

More Californians are gaining access to broadband internet, but Black and Latino households still lag behind their white counterparts, according to an analysis of the latest available American Community Survey data. The Public Policy Institute of California, which recently presented the findings, noted that the US Census Bureau survey paints a picture of expanding but unequal access to high-speed internet service in the state at a time when reliable internet service became a necessity for remote work and school.

As part of his Better Kentucky Plan, Gov Andy Beshear (D-KY) announced a historic investment of over $203 million to expand reliable and affordable high-speed internet to more than 34,000 Kentucky families and businesses. The state’s Better Internet program is providing more than $89.1 million in 46 grant awards to 12 internet service providers and local governments across 35 Kentucky counties. Grant recipients have pledged funds to match the state’s contributions, bringing the total investment for this round of broadband expansion awards to over $203 million.

This paper documents home Internet access, types of Internet access, connection speeds, and prices for basic home Internet in tribal areas of the United States. It finds that the share of households with Internet access is 21 percentage points lower in tribal areas than in neighboring non-tribal areas.

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) helps low-income families and individuals ease the financial burden of making tough choices between paying for groceries and other household necessities or paying for high-speed internet service. The funds that the ACP provides for eligible households to afford high-speed internet access can help level the playing field for low-income families and individuals by increasing their access to educational, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities; civic engagement; telehealth services; and more.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on a petition filed by the National Lifeline Association (NaLA) seeking clarification of the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) and Enforcement Bureau (EB) Chiefs’ authority to suspend a participating provider’s Affordable Connectivity Program enrollments and hold a participating provider’s funding based on the “adequate evidence” standard , or in the alternative, reconsideration of the removal rule (47 C.F.R. § 54.1801(e)(2)).

As of June 2022, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has been live for six months, providing monthly discounts on the internet bills and device costs of over 12.4 million households in the United States.

Several new items of legislation to create Summit Connects, a high-speed broadband public safety network, were introduced at the June 13 Summit County (OH) Council meeting. According to county officials, the network will initially consist of a 125-mile fiber optic cable ring connecting Summit County and its 31 city, village and township governments to gigabit-speed internet service and a data center to be operated by the City of Fairlawn.

Although there is already a ton of fantastic work being done on the ground, many of the groups doing that work would benefit from more funding that could be used to conduct direct Affordable Connectivity Program outreach, train digital navigators, and more. The Federal Communications Commission is currently engaged in a rulemaking to develop rules for how the grant program would work.

The future of the state’s high-speed internet and wireless connectivity was recently at the center of discussions between industry, community and university leaders at Ohio State University. President Kristina Johnson joined Lt Gov Jon Husted, director of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation (OWT), to open the first meeting of the Ohio Broadband & 5G Sector Partnership.

One of the most interesting sections of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) requires that states must define how they are going to make it easier for grant recipients to implement broadband solutions.