September 01, 2022 • Affordable Connectivity Program

Report on September 01, 2022 •

This week in “What’s New in Digital Equity” — our weekly look at government digital equity and broadband news — we have a number of interesting items, which you can jump to with the links below:

Check Out This New Affordable Connectivity Program Dashboard
Broadband Funding Continues to Flow from Feds to States
FCC Announces $800M in New Broadband Funding
U.S. Treasury Unveils Five Capital Projects to Boost Internet Access
The U.S. Digital Response Is Searching for a New CEO
NTIA Directs More Money Toward Tribal Broadband

CHECK OUT THIS NEW AFFORDABLE CONNECTIVITY PROGRAM DASHBOARD

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) has launched a new and very comprehensive dashboard centered on the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which is a federal program aimed at helping low-income households afford high-speed Internet connections, in large part by offering service for $30 per month.

The dashboard is live now, and the ILSR built it out as part of its Community Broadband Networks Initiative. The dashboard is interactive, and it tells the story of the ACP, essentially, doing so by conveying information such as how many Americans have signed up for the program, how much funding remains, and where the money is being spent, down to the national, state and ZIP code levels.

Currently, all of those numbers are so high they are almost hard to wrap one’s head around. Consider, for example, that as the visualization conveys, the fund has $12.6 billion remaining, and that the program is currently doling out $411 million each month to help Americans have high-speed Internet connections.

In addition, visitors can see which cities have the highest enrollment numbers among their residents. Outreach has been a major way that state and local governments have and continue to support the ACP, letting their residents know the program exists, assuaging any concerns they may have about security, and even helping with the logistics of signing up. As of the dashboard’s launch, cities with the highest percentages of enrollees in descending order are Cleveland, Baltimore, Detroit, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Columbus, San Diego, New York City, and Washington, D.C., which is tied for 10th with San Antonio.

In a press release from the ILSR announcing the dashboard’s creation, Community Broadband Networks Senior Researcher Ry Marcattillo-McCracken said, “Although the ACP is a short-term solution to a long-term challenge, it is a vital program for Americans unable to afford basic home Internet service where it’s available now. However, only a relatively small percentage of eligible households have enrolled in the program.”

As the dashboard notes in relatively large text at the top, 13 of 37 million eligible American households have currently signed up for this program, which is 36.5 percent.

Check out the dashboard now via the ILSR’s site. (Zack Quaintance)

BROADBAND FUNDING CONTINUES TO FLOW FROM FEDS TO STATES

Funds continue to make their way from the federal government down through states to broadband and digital equity work at the community level, with this week bringing several state-level announcements about the flow of the money.

Perhaps the most noteworthy of this week’s news was that Louisiana became the first state to get its Internet for All planning grant money, netting $2.9 million. As we reported in this space in August, all 50 states and every U.S. territory submitted applications for these planning grants, which may include as much as $5 million per request. What this means is that while Louisiana was the first to get its money, it certainly will not be the last. The money comes via the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which is part of this year’s federal Infrastructure Law. Money from Louisiana’s planning grant will go toward identifying underserved locations, conducting outreach, training employees of the broadband program, mapping and more.

Along with this news, Louisiana also announced that it was getting nearly $950,000 from the money the Infrastructure Law also allocates toward digital equity. That money will go toward developing a statewide digital equity plan, hiring a digital equity/inclusion specialist to execute the plan, fostering partnerships with the state’s higher education institutions and working with the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.

In North Carolina, the state allocated $206 million toward expanding broadband access through its own Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grants, noting that to date that program has doled out $260 million toward better Internet there, with more grants to be announced in the fall. The state estimates that this week’s grants will help connect as many as 85,000 households and more than 2,400 businesses. Much of the funding is going to private companies that plan to build out new infrastructure.

In other broadband infrastructure news, Connecticut announced that it now has federal approval to use $42.9 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding to launch a program that will build infrastructure to help connect more of its unserved and underserved residents to high-speed Internet. Dubbed the Connecticut Broadband Infrastructure Program, it is expected to launch in early 2023, with an initial target of expanding or improving access for more than 10,000 households and businesses there.

In Idaho, meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that it is awarding a $4.5 million grant from CARES Act recovery funds to boost Internet connectivity in central Idaho. Specifically, the money will support the construction of a 95-mile fiber-optic cable in the state between Moscow and Grangeville. This grant will be matched with $1.1 million in local funds, too.

Finally, Alabama allocated $26.6 million to broadband projects, largely channeling money through its own Alabama Broadband Accessibility Fund to companies like Comcast, Spectrum and others. (Zack Quaintance)

FCC ANNOUNCES $800M IN NEW BROADBAND FUNDING

Two recent announcements from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mark continued federal investment in digital equity, amounting to a total of over $800 million for broadband and digital services.

First, on Aug. 24, the FCC announced nearly $42 million in Emergency Connectivity Program funding to provide digital services for students through schools and libraries. Since its creation last year, the program has seen a commitment of over $5.7 billion. This latest commitment will serve about 100,000 students.

In addition, the FCC announced nearly $800 million in funding through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. This funding will support six providers in deploying broadband to approximately 350,000 locations in 19 states. This program has provided over $6 billion to support deployment in 47 states.

Additional information about these investments can be found on the FCC’s website.

(Julia Edinger)

March 03, 2023 •

Zack Quaintance

Digital equity is having a moment, but what happens when that moment ends? This was a big question at Net Inclusion.

Held this week in San Antonio, the event is the nation’s premiere gathering of digital equity and inclusion practitioners. The event itself was a testament to the national momentum in the space, having attracted a presidential cabinet secretary and seeing its attendance balloon to more than 800 people, up from last year’s previous high of 330. With the pandemic as proof, the entire country seemed to be acknowledging that Internet and digital literacy were now a basic need.

The federal government has even ponied up $65 billion in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) to help get Americans connected, with $2.75 billion going specifically to digital equity, while the rest goes mostly toward broadband.

The fact the money is a literal one-time payment — not to mention the fickle nature of the human attention span — had those in attendance asking “what happens when the limelight fades?”
Angela Siefer is the executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, the organizer of Net Inclusion as well as a good deal of the digital inclusion work happening in the United States generally. Siefer took the stage on day one, amid the sort of raucous cheering reserved for movie stars in a packed ballroom.

While acknowledging the success the work has had post-pandemic, Siefer brought a bit of sobering reality.

“How do we keep this going?” she asked...

The answer, Siefer said, is to figure out what the work needs to live on, specifically how practitioners can create “sustained, robust digital inclusion ecosystems in every community.”

Digital inclusion ecosystems is a concept that the NDIA has already defined. And the definitions the NDIA creates in the space have a history of becoming official, with their meaning for digital inclusion now codified federally as part of the IIJA.

The group defines a digital inclusion ecosystem as “a combination of programs and policies that meet a geographic community’s unique and diverse needs. Coordinating entities work together in an ecosystem to address all aspects of the digital divide, including affordable broadband, devices and skills.”

Many communities have digital inclusion ecosystems and have for a good while. The work that comes next for digital inclusion is strengthening them. The NDIA also offers guidance on what makes a digital inclusion ecosystem strong.

✓ This includes having programs and policies that address all of the aspects for the digital divide, including affordable and subsidized broadband as well as device ownership. There should also be multilingual digital literacy and skills training available, tech support and digital navigators to guide residents in all of the above. Finally, there needs to be collaboration on digital inclusion work between policymakers, advocates, social service groups, community leaders and, really, anyone else in a given community that holds public sway.

Another absolutely key thing for continuing digital inclusion work long term is data. And not data that shows people why the Internet is important — that question has been answered — but rather data about the specifics of digital equity programs in a community. To keep this work strong and thriving past its moment, Siefer said practitioners need data around how digital equity programs work, why they work, and who is benefiting from them.

That last question is perhaps the most crucial, as its answer is likely to lead to continued interest and funding. Who benefits from digital inclusion work? The answer is most — if not all — of the nation’s biggest industries: health care, education, telecommunications and even retail.

“Is retail in here yet?” Siefer asked the 800-plus people at Net Inclusion. There was little reaction. “That’s about to change.”

✓ Essentially, the more people who are able to be online, the more people that can participate in e-commerce. It’s a simple equation, but it’s one with the potential to motivate the nation’s most profitable and powerful companies to support digital inclusion and equity.

✓ Another industry that stands to benefit, Siefer noted, is philanthropy. While there is some philanthropic presence in the digital inclusion sector, there will likely be more as charitable organizations continue to realize that digital inclusion is part of their missions. A foundation that donates money to housing causes, for example, may come to realize that with Internet access and a device, an individual is more likely to find employment. There was already significant attendance at this year’s event by people from the ed-tech space.

It’s a sort of ripple effect, ultimately, one that will rapidly spread throughout the philanthropic world as digital inclusion successes lead to ease in their own work.

✓ Finally, government is another stakeholder that stands to benefit as it seeks to digitize more of its services in ways that save time and money. Some of that saved money, Siefer noted, can and should be put back into digital inclusion. All of these organizations, though, are crucial to ensure that this current bout of interest leads to sustained funding.

“I’d like to say we’re going to find another big pot of money,” Siefer said, “but unless there’s another pandemic, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

So, how can these industries be brought to fund this work that benefits them? In a word, storytelling. CEOs, policymakers and board chairpeople must all be made to understand the impact that successful digital inclusion work has. This happens with stories of the work, stories backed up by data.

And Siefer wasn’t the only one discussing how to build and future-proof digital inclusion ecosystems at the event. On the second day, there was an entire panel about it, including practitioners from Texas, Tennessee, New York and Arizona.

Mikhail Sundust is the executive director of Digital Connect, a digital inclusion and equity program within the Gila River Indian Community, which is located south of Phoenix, Ariz., and covers roughly 580 square miles. Sundust said one thing that is crucial to understand about digital equity ecosystems is that in most communities, they already exist, except they’re often “disconnected from each other and doing their own things.”

For advocates and inclusion practitioners, the real work is supporting, strengthening and ultimately bringing them all together to be more cohesive.

“The ecosystem already exists,” Sundust said, “but in order to be intentional about it, we need to create partnerships with the groups already in our communities.”

That panel was moderated by Colin Rhinesmith, a veteran of the digital inclusion space who currently heads up the Digital Equity Research Center, a group he founded and that is housed in the Metropolitan New York Library Council.

Rhinesmith noted that putting people rather than tech at the center is key to the storytelling, to explaining why digital equity matters.

“We are most successful when we emphasize each other and not the technology,” Rhinesmith said, “... and one simple way to do that is by finding out what people care about in the community, then make the connection.”

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20 March 2023