Diversity

This report, mandated by the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, details the work of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives (OMBI) in expanding access and identifying barriers to high-speed internet service for students, faculty, and staff at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HCBU), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) and within anchor communities. Examples of OMBI’s key 2021-2022 accomplishments highlighted in the report include:

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has awarded five grants as part of the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program (CMC).

Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, launched the “Black Tech Agenda." The agenda sets an affirmative vision for how to create tech policy that centers on racial justice and ensures bias and discrimination are rooted out of the digital lives of Black people and everyone. The agenda has 6 pillars that outline real policy solutions for Congress to advance racial equity in Tech:

Which rural minority communities are growing? What are the strategies behind these growth-oriented communities? Answers to these questions are central to this report; we illuminate inspiring leadership regimes and strategic policy models that are drawing in people and jobs to rural minority communities. We capitalize on a wealth of publicly available administrative data to outline these economies and deconstruct trends in employment, business creation, broadband adoption, and the labor force.

Digital equity is a key promise of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. If successful, the new law will lead to everyone and every community around the country having the connections and skills they need to fully participate in our increasingly digital economy and society. It seems like a tall order.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced over $146 million in funds awarded from the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 to Tribal entities in New Mexico. The awards will provide 5 Tribal entities with funds for high-speed internet projects through the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program. On August 8, NTIA announced over $51 million in awards to Tribes in the state of Alaska, these awards are another tranche of this vital funding.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has awarded two grants as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program.

Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information Alan Davidson announced that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has added $1 billion from President Biden’s Infrastructure investment and Jobs Act to the current Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program funding period, which closes September 1, 2022. NTIA already received more than 300 applications during the application window for over $5 billion in funding requests.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) announced an agreement to coordinate responsibilities in ensuring compliance with environmental, historic preservation, and cultural resources requirements related to the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program. This collaboration allows high-speed internet service to be deployed quickly while also ensuring safeguards to protect Native lands and interests.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has awarded two grants as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program.