Digital Divide

Public spaces across Pennsylvania are about to get an internet upgrade. The Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority (PBDA) announced $45 million in funding for the Multi-Purpose Community Facilities Program, which provides money to community organizations and local governments to upgrade public facilities. The program will provide grants to 49 projects in 26 counties across the commonwealth. The grants will go toward building and improving public spaces such as schools, libraries, community centers and healthcare facilities for free, high-speed internet.

Nebraska is aiming to connect 99 percent of homes and businesses with reliable and affordable high-speed internet access by 2027. Based on June 2023 data, 12-15 percent of Nebraska’s locations are unserved or underserved, and approximately 105,000 households lack acceptable access to the internet. An unfavorable business case for investment, especially in rural areas, has resulted in limited access.

Let’s discuss the current Broadband Policy State of Play and how the election may affect it. There are four fundamental goals of broadband policy:

In 2022, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) joined the nationwide celebration of Digital Inclusion Week, recognizing its critical role in fostering equitable Internet access and digital literacy. While Digital Inclusion Week remains a week-long event, NTIA expanded its observance into a month-long celebration in 2023, reflecting the pressing need to address digital disparities in depth. This extension underscores NTIA's commitment to ensuring that everyone, regardless of location, background, or circumstance, can fully participate in the digital world.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration's mission is to build a better-connected world. That work includes connecting everyone in America to reliable, affordable high-speed Internet service. The Internet for All initiative is historic. As such, we would be remiss if we failed to learn lessons from the recent history of other federal broadband programs. Top of mind are the failings of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, or RDOF.

The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) sees the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program as Virginia’s opportunity to finish the job of extending broadband access and also make long-term, transformational investments into broadband affordability and adoption. With the $1.48 billion in BEAD funds for Virginia, DHCD is finalizing plans to extend broadband infrastructure to the remaining unserved locations without a funded solution for connectivity and designing programs to meaningfully address broadband affordability and adoption.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month by showcasing one of its Internet for All grantees that embodies this year’s theme: "Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together." At Universidad Ana G. Méndez, Carolina Campus (UAGM-CC) principal investigator and agent of change Dr. Luis Rosario-Albert leads the effort to connect Carolina County, Puerto Rico residents to Internet services and digital skills training through the UAGCM-CC Broadband Digital Inclusion Project (BDIP).

The Federal Communications Commission's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a means-tested federal program launched in January 2022 to support broadband connectivity among low-income households in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The expiration of the ACP benefit, the largest ever consumer support program for telecommunication services in U.S. history, invites a discussion about the impact of the program and what alternative policy mechanisms exist to promote equitable access to broadband.

In 2021, Congress enacted the Digital Equity Act (DEA) as part of the massive Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). This marked the first time that federal lawmakers had dedicated funding specifically for digital equity programming, providing money for state broadband offices to analyze the digital equity landscape in their states and develop plans to reduce the barriers to accessing such critical service. For the first time, all 50 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico created digital equity plans under the planning grant program.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau announce that comments in response to their September 2024 Public Notice are due no later than November 4, 2024, and reply comments are due no later than November 18, 2024. On September 11, 2024, the FCC released a Public Notice inviting supplemental comment to refresh and expand upon the record regarding the annual reporting and certification requirements for providers of incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS).