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In today's society, individuals and households without reliable Internet connections are increasingly at risk of facing significant disadvantages. This article describes an Extension-led pilot project in Oklahoma centered on addressing this issue through the establishment of a hotspot lending program in four rural libraries. Through the program, libraries allow patrons to "check out the Internet" by providing cellular-based hotspots that connect to a user's smartphone, tablet, or laptop.

The lion’s share of discussion around the digital divide has centered around access, but the prices rural consumers are paying for the services available to them are worth paying attention to as well. According to our research, roughly 146 million rural Americans do not have access to a low-priced plan for wired broadband internet. That’s nearly 45 percent of the US population. We define “low-priced” as a broadband plan with a monthly cost less than or equal to the 20th percentile of all plan prices, or around $60 per month.

The “digital divide” commonly refers to the question of who has access to the Internet, but at least when it comes to race and income, that gap is pretty insignificant. Policymakers are too busy bridging a fake divide to notice the real one right under their noses. The real divide is actually in time spent on screens, and there, the gap is enormous.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) most recent Internet Use Survey depicts a rapidly evolving nation eager to take advantage of technological innovation. Mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, and wearables are increasingly dominating the computing landscape, as more Americans than ever use the Internet. Yet a portion of the population still does not use the Internet at home, consistent with findings in previous NTIA and US Census Bureau surveys on Internet use.

Led by Sen Patty Murray (D-WA) -- the top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee -- a group of Senate Democrats introduced new legislation aimed at closing the growing digital divide in communities across the country.

Detroit has hired its first director of digital inclusion, making it one of a growing number of cities to have a full-time employee within its government tackling issues of digital equity. The city tapped Joshua Edmonds to fill the new role. Edmonds comes to the city from Cleveland, where he previously worked in the digital inclusion space. In Cleveland, Edmonds helped lead the deployment of more than $1.5 million of investments related to digital equity through The Cleveland Foundation, an influential community foundation in the Ohio city.

The city of Charlotte’s namesake, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was Queen of Great Britain at the time of the US Revolution. Therefore, it seems appropriate to revisit the Queen’s City and celebrate the people and the organizations who are ensuring this digital revolution benefits everyone.

To demonstrate what makes internet health meaningful for stakeholders and communities at the municipal level, this collection of case studies offers a portrait of a vibrant city working in different ways toward a common public good – an inclusive, safe, secure, open, and decentralized internet. The report examines how people, civil society institutions, government, and advocates – all committed to digital rights – can make our relationship to the internet healthier across five crucial issue areas:

There are concerns across government, industry, and academia over the adequacy of data about broadband Internet connections. Due to the uneven availability and adoption of broadband, these inadequacies are important to consider because government policy and regulation, industry and business strategies, and scholarly research can be impacted by inaccurate or distorted data.

The Benton Foundation unequivocally opposes any proposals from the Federal Communications Commission that would allow the FCC to shirk its responsibilities to meet its Congressionally-mandated mission. The FCC is supposed to ensure: