Internet/Broadband

The US is a country is covered in cable broadband. More than 86% of the country has access to at least one cable or fiber broadband service according to Federal Communications Commission maps. Only 5% of locations among the 50 states and DC have access to three or more cable or fiber (I’ll call them wired) internet service providers (ISP). Thirty-two percent of locations have access to two wired offerings. And 49% have access to only one wired offering. Importantly, 13.5% of locations have access to zero wired offerings.

The latest Broadband Insights Report is out from OpenVault providing statistics on average broadband usage at the end of the first quarter of 2023. In looking over the latest statistics I’m starting to see some interesting trends. The average household used 560.5 gigabytes of broadband per month by the end of the quarter. That is the combination of 524.8.2 gigabytes of download and 35.7 gigabytes of upload.

Ten years ago, long before the unprecedented amounts of federal funding in rural Internet infrastructure, Roger Heinen watched Islesboro’s population drop precipitously. In 2014, Heinen formed a small volunteer coalition to come up with a solution for the island of under 600 year-round residents. In 2016, voters approved a $3.8 million bond to fund the construction of a fiber-to-the-premises infrastructure capable of speeds of 1 gigabit per second.

In Ammon, Idaho, every home has access to a fiber optic connection with 1 gigabit per second download and upload speeds. It costs roughly $30 per month. And it’s not controlled by a single big company. Nine different providers can offer you that connection.

Typical of the bureaucratic nature of the federal government, rural broadband investments remain with traditional infrastructure, such as fiber-optic, cable modem, and DSL. While these technologies are important and economically viable in dense urban areas, we must recognize that new technologies are now available that will bring down costs and actually achieve the goal of total connectivity across the US.

Digital equity is a core social driver of health. Digital equity refers to the condition in which all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy and economy.

For me, Juneteenth has always lived at the intersection of joy and sorrow. It highlights a systemized violation of human rights in our country. Throughout history, access to information has always been used as a tool of oppression, with the knowledge that it can also liberate. A modern form of institutional oppression is digital inequity.

Oh, the internet — today so many people are online almost constantly. And yet so many people in the US still have a tenuous connection to the internet. But here is the good news. The United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, along with a huge number of allies from the civil rights and public interest communities, successfully persuaded Congress to adopt a new program. The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is a federal program designed to help low-income households pay for broadband internet service.

The Michigan High-Speed Internet Office (MIHI) announced its initial recommendations for the Realizing Opportunity with Broadband Infrastructure Networks (ROBIN) grant program, which will provide $238 million in federal funding through the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF) to support the deployment of high-speed internet to approximately 100,000 unserved locations throughout the state.

In the past several years, our society has learned more, faster than ever before. However, the flow of information in our digital world is interrupted by serious accessibility barriers for the deaf community. Navigating the hearing world with few accommodations and limited resources—including broadband and online access to training and professional development—is holding some people back.