Imperial County: Closing the Homework Gap in a California Desert Community

In communities where too many people have no access to broadband infrastructure, investing in connections to community anchor institutions is an intermediate step that can pay huge public dividends. Imperial County, located in the sparsely populated desert region of southeastern California, is an exciting example. When relying on a single telecommunications provider and its outdated technology, Imperial County school districts, higher-education institutions, and government agencies had limited access to broadband infrastructure. So they joined forces, forming the Imperial Valley Telecommunications Authority (IVTA ) to create a high-performance data network for a fraction of the cost of standard telecommunications lines.