Individuals with a Language Barrier

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has accepted Texas’ Digital Equity plan. Using $3,110,150.00 from the State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, Texas created a plan aimed at addressing disparities in digital access, skills and affordability across the state. 

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the availability and individual state allocations of approximately $811 million in funding to states, territories, and native entities to empower individuals and communities with the tools, skills, and opportunities to benefit from meaningful access to high-speed Internet service.

The Commonwealth of the North Mariana Islands (CNMI) Broadband Policy & Development (BPD) Office released its draft Digital Equity Plan, A Voyage to Digital Equity in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In the dynamic landscape of the digital age, where information and opportunities surge like currents across the Marianas Trench, the concept of digital equity emerges as CNMI's northern star.

Thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced across your communities – modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, and public transit systems. ... Providing affordable high speed internet for every American no matter where you live. 

The Fiscal Year 2024 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Act provides a total of $68.537 billion in discretionary funding.  The bill provides $10.8 billion for the Department of Commerce.

All 50 States, DC, and Puerto Rico have submitted their Digital Equity Plans to NTIA for acceptance. This is a milestone moment in closing the digital divide. For the first time in our nation’s history, each state will have a plan to connect communities with the resources they need to achieve digital equity. That’s never been true before, and it’s an exciting indicator of how far we’ve come as a nation in acknowledging and addressing this challenge.

The vision of the Digital Equity Plan for Hawaiʻi will be the overarching guide that will steer the direction of all strategies, objectives, and actions in this plan. As remote work, online learning, telehealth services, and virtual interactions became essential, individuals and communities faced immense obstacles getting digitally connected. These challenges will continue without high quality Internet access, adequate tools, and the necessary digital literacy skills.

Maine is the first state in the country to have its Digital Equity Plan approved by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). This is a major accomplishment in that this represents the first statewide Digital Equity Plan to ever be developed for our state (and the first tied to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—also known as Bipartisan Infrastructure Law). And, it is fitting that our Digital Equity Plan can now be put into motion ahead of any infrastructure deployed through the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

We have 1,300 people at Net Inclusion 2024 in Philadelphia. We’ve secured $2.75 billion from the Digital Equity Act. And this is just the beginning. It has to be just the beginning. So how do we sustain this movement? The answer to sustainability lies in robust digital inclusion ecosystems. They’re the key to HOLISTIC digital inclusion. Digital equity is the goal, and digital inclusion ecosystems lead us there by weaving together digital inclusion activities happening across your communities. These 6 strategies will help sustain our movement and field:

At today’s meeting, I voted on two consumer issues—to ask cable programmers, and television and radio stations for their help to achieve the critical goal of providing timely information about emergencies to the public, in a language they can understand; and to clarify that consumers can opt-out of call or text lists using any reasonable means and may respond in the language in which they received the communication.