Conduct a national outreach and awareness campaign

Recommendation #92

FCC Chapter: 9.7

The private sector and non-profit community should partner to conduct a national outreach and awareness campaign.

Leading media, broadband providers and other technology companies should partner with national non-profits with strong ties to underserved communities to conduct a nationwide outreach and awareness campaign.

The campaign should:

• specifically target key segments of non-adopters such as the elderly, low-income Americans, ethnic and racial minorities and rural Americans,
• communicate to audiences and their families, in a culturally relevant way, why broadband matters,
• include public service announcements and local broadcast messages, but should also focus on printed materials and other resources for local media outreach, and
• make media and other resources available in multiple languages so that they are accessible by non-adopters whose primary or only language is not English.

Although the federal government may not directly coordinate the campaign, the FCC and other actors from federal, Tribal, state and local government should work with the partnership to ensure that existing government outreach efforts communicate consistent messages (when possible).

The FCC's Consumer Advisory Committee should also monitor the campaign and report back to the FCC on the campaign's effectiveness and private sector's level of engagement with the campaign.