Nine of the Nation’s Leading Digital Inclusion Advocates Launch Airwaves for Equity Coalition

Nine of the nation’s leading digital equity organizations announced the launch of Airwaves for Equity, a coalition focused on asking Congress to dedicate the net proceeds from future spectrum auctions to support digital literacy and inclusion efforts. The coalition consists of the American Library Association (ALA), the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the Center for Rural Strategies, Common Sense Media, Consumer Reports, National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), Public Knowledge, the Open Technology Institute at New America, and the Schools Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition. Airwaves for Equity proposes that Congress dedicate a substantial portion of wireless spectrum auction revenues to endow a Digital Equity Foundation. The goal is to provide sustainable funding for initiatives designed to promote digital literacy and inclusion, from local digital navigator programs and telehealth to disability access and efforts to close the K-12 homework gap. Leaders on the Senate and House Commerce Committees from both parties have embraced the concept of dedicating auction proceeds to help close the digital divide in other recent legislation. Because the Federal Communications Commission's auction authority must be extended in 2022, the needed legislation will create an opportunity to leverage revenues from the invisible natural resource owned by the American people that has become essential as the internet goes wireless: the public airwaves.