National Digital Inclusion Alliance

The fifth Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion Award is officially open for nominations! Two awards will be given: One will recognize an outstanding individual who has truly made a difference in the field of digital equity; the other will acknowledge an up-and-coming digital inclusion practitioner. The award will be presented in April at Net Inclusion 2020 in Portland, Oregon, by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA).

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance has once again urged the Federal Communications Commission to consider broadband adoption rates and affordability in the agency’s annual assessment of “whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to ​ all Americans​ in a ​ reasonable​ and timely fashion”.

In 221 large and medium-size US cities, according to the latest data from the US Census, at least 30% of all households still lacked a wireline broadband connection in 2018. They are NDIA’s Worst Connected Cities of 2018. The 2018 American Community Survey One Year Estimates (ACS), released by the US Census in September 2019, include 2018 household Internet access data for 623 US cities and “Census designated places” with populations of 65,000 or more. NDIA has ranked all 623 of these communities by:

NDIA reviews what the term smart communities entail and how local government leaders are cementing divides if they fail to include strategies for digital inclusion and digital equity in their smart community plans. While there is a common misconception that the digital divide is a rural problem, three-fourths of the twenty million American households who still lack home broadband or mobile data connections live in urbanized areas, not in remote rural regions; and they are very likely low-income. There is still an urban digital divide and smart communities could make it worse.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance and the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program have partnered to create the Broadband Research Base, a searchable collection of reports, studies and journal articles that address the impact of broadband and digital inclusion on community and individual well-being. Has anybody studied the impact of broadband availability, speed or adoption on local economic growth? On K-12 education? On health care?

In 2017, Dr. Brian Whitacre was approached by Attorney Daryl Parks, who was preparing to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission based on the National Digital Inclusion Alliance's study of AT&T’s Digital Redlining of Cleveland (OH). Parks asked Whitacre to conduct an expert assessment of NDIA’s Cleveland research and provide sworn testimony about his findings, which he did.  Parks also asked Whitacre to conduct a similar analysis of AT&T broadband services in Dallas County (TX).

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance has joined with the Communications Workers of America and Public Knowledge to submit a “friend of the Court” brief in a lawsuit seeking to overturn a Federal Communications Commission order that preempts municipal authority over the use of public property for 5G wireless deployments. The three organizations’ amicus brief was filed with the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Cities across the US are trying to become “smart cities,” as they invest in digital technologies to help monitor the environment, enhance mobility, and improve the delivery of municipal services. An examination of several cities which have sought to embrace smart city technology while keeping equity in the forefront shows that:

There are several serious problems with the Federal Communications Commission's 2019 Broadband Deployment Report, but here’s the one we’re most concerned about: The FCC majority has chosen, once again, to ignore the critical issues of broadband cost and affordability in its analysis of “whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.” The cost of broadband Internet service, and households’ ability to pay that cost, are important determinants of broadband access.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance is launching a new, dedicated website for the Digital Equity Act of 2019. The new site features: