Marginalized Populations

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is awarding $502 million in loans and grants to provide high-speed internet access for rural residents and businesses in 20 states. USDA is making investments through the third funding round of the ReConnect Program. USDA is making 32 awards in Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.

SpaceX is aiming to expand its satellite internet service Starlink to school buses in the US. The company mentioned the effort in a September 20 filing with the Federal Communications Commission.

This research characterizes the state of Internet equity in Chicago (IL), focusing on different dimensions of Internet equity, including availability, affordability, and adoption. To this end, we combine multiple existing datasets to understand the digital divide in Chicago and the contributing factors. Our findings show a disparity in broadband adoption rates across neighborhoods in Chicago: Broadband adoption varies between 58--93% across community areas, with low access areas mostly concentrated in South and West Chicago.

A longstanding approach to measuring Internet performance is to directly compare throughput against pre-defined benchmarks (e.g., 25 Mbps downstream, 3 Mbps upstream).

Major federal broadband consumer subsidy programs that have been implemented, in the U.S. (the Lifeline, the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB), and the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP)) are rebates administered through broadband providers. Yet, uptake in these programs among eligible households has been modest. Direct-to-consumer voucher subsidies have been widely applied to non-broadband social benefit programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), yet there is limited implementation for broadband.

Housed at the Michelson 20MM Foundation, the Digital Equity Pooled Fund is a new collaboration between 20MM, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF), and California Community Foundation (CCF) that is focused on advancing digital equity in California.

More than ever, services and businesses from banks to doctors' offices and restaurants to airlines expect users to have access to smartphones — but many older people still lack digital skills, and products don't always take their needs into account. A December 2021 survey conducted by AARP found that three in four people over the age of 50 say they rely on technology to stay connected, but 42% of them say that technology is not designed for all ages.

New York City (NY) will begin the citywide launch of ‘Big Apple Connect’ — a landmark digital equity program that will make free high-speed internet and basic cable TV available to approximately 300,000 New Yorkers living in more than 200 New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments by the end of 2023.

Incarcerated people often have limited access to technology and pay exorbitant rates for even basic communication tools, like phones. The Last Mile, a nonprofit organization established more than a decade ago to teach entrepreneurial skills to those in correctional facilities, pivoted to web development classes in 2014 because it found those skills were most effective in helping people find jobs after their release.

The winner of the 2022 Charles Benton Early Career Scholars award is Dr. Erezi Ruth Ogbo, a postdoctoral associate researcher at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. In Broadband Voucher Programs: Evaluating the Alabama Broadband Connectivity Program, Erezi examined the only digital inclusion program using direct-to-consumer vouchers that have been implemented in the US. Known as ABC for Students, the program provided continuity of broadband service for about 200,000 Alabama students during the COVID-19 pandemic.