Digital Inclusion Week Highlights Focus on Broadband-Disconnected Urban Residents

Experts on digital empowerment pressed the federal government to maintain a focus on broadband equity during the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA)'s October 6 event as part of “National Digital Inclusion Week.” Speaking about the broader agenda for NDIA, executive director Angela Siefer said that NDIA’s purpose was to provide “peer-to-peer learning. We get the conversation started. Everything we get is from boots on the ground.” This theme of community-informed practice and knowledge sharing echoed throughout the event. Siefer said that NDIA learned that digital redlining is happening in Cleveland (OH) from discoveries that came from working and living there. “Digital redlining” refers to discrimination by internet service providers (ISPs) in deployment, maintenance, upgrade or delivery of services. Often, as was alleged in Cleveland, NDIA accused AT&T of avoiding making fiber upgrades to broadband infrastructure. The group has also published reports with the Communications Workers of America making similar charges. These discoveries have built momentum for some, including the Anti-Digital Redlining Act introduced in August 2021 by Rep Yvette Clark (D-NY). The bill attempts to ban systematic broadband underinvestment in low-income communities.