Marginalized Populations

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced more than $313 million in funding to connect rural residents, farmers and business owners in 18 states to reliable high-speed internet.

The Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation, and Technology (OSIT) is ready to submit the Final Proposal for the state’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program to the National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA). The Final Proposal will include the provisional winners of Nevada’s first round of BEAD funding.

More than 80% of Canadians have access to fixed broadband networks, but for rural Canadians that figure drops to just 60%. Yet, this gap between who has broadband access and who doesn't is closing in rural areas at a rate nearly three times faster than in urban areas.

The Healey-Driscoll Administration and Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) within the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) announced $6,326,054 in awards to 3,512 affordable housing units across nine Massachusetts communities. The awards are part of the Residential Retrofit Program, an initiative from MBI that works with housing operators and internet service providers (ISPs) to upgrade broadband infrastructure in public and affordable housing properties.

One in four Americans list “saving money” as a top 2025 New Year’s resolution, and nearly a quarter of a million people ask Google about internet costs every month. Auditing your internet bill is a simple way to start. HighSpeedInternet.com’s latest report reveals average internet costs by state and provides tools you can use to compare providers and save money.

A growing body of work has identified a digital language divide: the disparity between languages in terms of digital content availability, accessibility, and technological support.

The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has recommended for award more than $276 million to 44 Tribal entities to expand high-speed Internet access and adoption. The funding from the nearly $3 billion Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is part of the Biden-Harris Administration's Internet for All Initiative.

With a new Trump administration entering power in late January, the regulatory wheels are already in motion and work is underway to prepare for big changes likely to arrive in 2025. ACA Connects CEO Grant Spellmeyer generally believes that the new administration will be good for ACA Connects' membership.

Rural Americans encounter substantial healthcare disparities when compared to urban counterparts, including provider shortages, less access to specialists, and higher mortality risks from various chronic and acute conditions. While 13.8% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, rural regions comprise two-thirds of healthcare provider shortage areas. Accordingly, broadband-enabled telehealth that mitigates barriers to healthcare access can be a transformative solution for patients and physicians in rural areas.

In 2022, President Joe Biden (D-DE) signed the Data Mapping to Save Moms' Lives Act, which directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to “incorporate publicly available data on maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity into the agency’s Mapping Broadband Health in America platform, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The bipartisan bill was introduced in 2021 by Sens.