Digital Equity

High school students involved with the Georgia 4-H Tech Changemakers program this year worked with local governments and organizations to deliver digital literacy training to a record 5,488 adults.

The funding comes from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program that was created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and will go toward extending service in underserved parts of the state.

Plus, new bipartisan legislation at the federal level is taking aim at increasing access to rural broadband, Pennsylvania is working to expand broadband across the entirety of the commonwealth, and more.

State and local efforts to expand residential broadband to 53 un- and underserved communities have now brought full service to 44 of them and partial services to the others. The state also announced several new initiatives.

In our look back at 2022, March and April headlines tracked how states and localities were expanding high-speed Internet and pushing digital equity initiatives, while also meeting the growing demand for online services.

The findings, compiled by a contractor, outlined an important blueprint about what needs the county should focus on moving forward, officials said. It also gives the county credibility as it competes for grant funding.

Incarcerated individuals in some Texas prisons will no longer have to wait until their release to learn how to use the latest technology — like smartphones and other communications tools — through a newly formed program.

The satellite-based Internet service from SpaceX has launched in Alaska, where more than 200 villages lack city-quality service. Advocates say the service will extend to every corner of the state.

Sound Generations, which used to be called Senior Services, has operated in King County for more than 60 years and is the largest comprehensive services provider for older adults in Washington state.

The release of new Internet availability maps earlier this month has elicited a wide response from U.S. senators, federal broadband officials, telecommunications industry groups, nonprofit organizations and others.

Joseph residents will soon have more options when it comes to choosing an Internet provider, thanks to Metronet, a 100 percent fiber-optic company started back in 2005 that is now moving into the local market.

Tech-rich but Internet-poor, residents of a Silicon Valley neighborhood were fed up with sluggish broadband of less than 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload — the federal definition of unserved by adequate Internet.

The project is expected to connect more than 1,700 homes with high-speed Internet. About 5,000 people live on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, but only about 59 percent of households have broadband Internet subscriptions.

Plus, New Mexico directs $36.8 million in grants through an Internet expansion pilot program, Nebraska nets $5.6 million in federal awards for boosting broadband, a report details Chicago digital divide progress, and more.

The program, called the Broadband Line Extension Connection Program, will work differently from other grants in that the process in applying for the grant will not be generated from an ISP, but rather by the end users.

In heavily wooded Cook Township, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, the average Internet speed is so slow that it barely qualifies as broadband, according to the new federal minimum standard.

Plus, a new report details how to make broadband a priority in affordable rental housing development projects, the FCC is partnering with the Department of Veterans to help those who served get connected, and more.

Ahead of the Federal Communications Commission's goal of rolling out new broadband labels this month, telecommunications industry experts from the Fiber Broadband Association and Carnegie Mellon weigh in on the subject.