NTIA Minority Broadband Initiative

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration launched the Minority Broadband Initiative (MBI), working with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to ensure all Americans can participate in the digital economy. NTIA will build upon its relationships with HBCUs, as community anchor institutions, to leverage minority stakeholder engagement in finding new opportunities for broadband deployment. HBCUs offer specific programmatic advantages, including supporting economic growth and competitiveness in anchor communities through high capacity broadband networks and connectivity. The MBI seeks to partner with federal agencies, local government and the private sector to explore opportunities for broadband expansion across HBCU campuses and surrounding communities. NTIA’s MBI aims to achieve the following broad strategic policy objectives:

1. Convening a forum where stakeholders can explore options for leveraging HBCU broadband infrastructure to connect neighboring communities of vulnerable populations; and
2. Using broadband infrastructure investment as a catalyst for adoption that will result in job growth and economic development and deployment of advanced mobile technologies primarily in the economically distressed communities of the rural South.