Data & Mapping

As government services, social and civic connections, financial services, educational resources, and workforce opportunities increasingly move online, suburban Cook County communities face a range of challenges. Those challenges include finding quality, affordable broadband internet service; obtaining usable, supported devices; and building the skills and confidence needed to navigate the internet safely and meaningfully. This action plan is organized around four digital equity cornerstones:

Having studied barriers to Internet use for the last three decades, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is intimately familiar with the longstanding disparities that keep far too many Americans from realizing the full benefits of modern communications and information technologies.

The Idaho Broadband Advisory Board and Idaho Office of Broadband have opened a public comment period on the state’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program Initial Proposal (Volumes I and II) for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The state has been working to identify Idaho’s internet needs, challenges and opportunities to develop internet expansion plans. The work is reflected in the state’s draft BEAD Initial Proposal.

The Michigan High-Speed Internet Office (MIHI) is now accepting public comment on Volume 1 of Michigan’s Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Initial Proposal.

Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel) is employing Render Networks' construction management platform to handle the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) expansions for its Glo Fiber brand—which offers multi-gigabit broadband internet access, live streaming TV and digital home phone service in183,000 households across Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Render's platform will be used in all markets where Shentel is building, and is already in three markets right now. The network construction platform leverages geospatial, task-level data for automation.

Last month, Benton Institute for Broadband & Society staff, fellows, former fellows, and friends attended the 51st Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) in Washington (DC). Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate Gigi Sohn delivered the keynote, Executive Director Adrianne Furniss awarded the

While the proposal I made to restore net neutrality will certainly garner the most attention, the Federal Communications Commission's October agenda features many other actions to promote digital equity and support broadband-powered innovation:

The digital divide is multi-faceted and currently there is no single set of instructions for how it can be closed. Broadly speaking, there are at least two main reasons why a location may not have high-speed internet: 1) Infrastructure deficiencies, meaning either the complete absence of infrastructure, or the present infrastructure is insufficient for delivering broadband speeds and 2) the proper infrastructure is present, but there is a lack of adoption from the people who could theoretically take advantage of it.

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking further comment on the 5G Fund for Rural America to reignite the FCC's plan to expand the deployment of 5G service to rural communities that remain trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide.

According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 8.3 million households lack access to high-speed broadband. Providing universal access to communications service—initially voice service and now broadband—has always been a challenge in the United States. Although connecting urban, populated areas is relatively easy, serving sparsely populated rural areas is difficult due to differences in terrain and population density.