Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

New Dataset Reveals Impact of RDOF Defaults on Each State

The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is a program created by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) under former Chairmen Ajit Pai during the first Trump administration. The program was designed with two goals: 1) to extend broadband networks into unserved rural areas while 2) expending the fewest number of federal dollars possible. To accomplish this, RDOF used a “reverse auction” to select winning applicants (ISPs) that requested the least amount of federal funding to deploy broadband in eligible rural areas.

Montana Advances Opportunity with Digital Equity

To close Montana’s digital divide, the Montana Broadband Office created a Digital Opportunity Plan, which addresses broadband adoption barriers in four main areas: availability, service affordability, device access, and digital skills.

The Broadband Priorities of House Communications Subcommittee Republicans

Energy and Commerce is the oldest standing legislative committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. House Commerce is vested with the broadest jurisdiction of any congressional authorizing committee.

West Virginia's Digital Equity Timeline

On November 1, 2024, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded the West Virginia Department of Economic Development (WVDED) over $9 million in Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program funding to implement the West Virginia Digital Equity Plan. Major activities NTIA is supporting include:

The Kūpuna Collective: A Public Health Coalition Advancing Digital Equity

The Kūpuna Collective is a health-centered coalition that brings together a network of partners across the state of Hawai’i.

Seattle’s Equity-Based Approach to Digital Inclusion

The City of Seattle’s Information Technology department (Seattle IT) supports digital equity programs and services as a coalition organization. The City began its digital equity work in the mid-1990s in response to community advocacy concerning access to information technology.

Linking Alabama to Broadband With a Digital Equity Capacity Grant

The Be Linked Alabama initiative is the state’s united effort to expand access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet to all Alabamians. Coordinated by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), Be Linked Alabama led to the development of the Alabama Statewide Digital Opportunity Plan.

Digital Connect Makes Digital Navigation Approachable

Digital Connect (DCI) is an initiative of a Tribal-owned internet service provider (ISP) that offers a full complement of digital inclusion services to Tribal members and residents of the Gila River Indian Reservation, including individualized digital navigation, digital skills training, device distribution, and, more recently, digital equity research.

BEAD’s Groundhog Day Moment

According to Albert Einstein, insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” Congress is taking this to a whole new level with its latest discussions about how to “fix” broadband internet deployment across the United States. The most vociferous criticisms of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program have centered on how long it has taken to deploy. On its face, that is a fair criticism. Contextualized, however, the criticism does not hold water. No one is asking why it took so long. The simple answer: Maps.

ConnectingALL with Digital Equity Capacity Grant in New York

The New York State Digital Equity Plan––created by the state's ConnectALL Office––envisions a state transformed by digital infrastructure that brings to all New York residents access to high-speed, reliable, and affordable broadband for education, economic growth, and full participation in civic life.