This episode of The Divide podcast features Blair Levin and Clint Odom discussing the goals of the National Urban League’s Lewis Latimer Plan for Digital Equity & Inclusion and how the NUL and other organizations are collaborating to advance their agenda at the federal level.  

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This report makes a case for Ohio to invest in expanding coverage into the state’s unserved areas. The authors recommend that Ohio create a state broadband office, adopt a dig-once policy, strengthen its public-private partnerships, establish an investment fund to finance infrastructure builds, and promote last-mile policies in local governments.

This report outlines a plan for California’s San Joaquin Valley to achieve the goal of broadband availability in 98 percent of its households. The plan includes using State and federal funds to build infrastructure, deploying a hybrid fiber-wireless model, and using water districts for easements and rights-of-way.

Valley Vision, in partnership with the California Emerging Technology Fund, reports on the unserved households in the Sacramento metropolitan area and evaluates the estimated costs of reaching the preferred scenario of broadband availability in 98 percent of the region’s households.

Tech Goes Home commits to a strategy for closing the digital divide through Opportunity Blueprint. The plan describes the challenges and opportunities involved, and details the organization’s goals to expand its programs.

This paper offers background research on the digital divide and municipal fiber network projects, with a focus on California. The authors also compare California’s speeds and prices with other states, show where the United States ranks with other developed countries in terms of internet access, and offer case studies of cities with municipal broadband networks.

This report outlines the preferred scenario in helping to achieve the goal of attaining 98 percent broadband deployment in San Bernadino and Riverside Counties in California. The report includes maps identifying unserved areas; describes the public assets, programs, permits, and existing infrastructure needed for deployment; and recommends a path forward.

This analysis from Heartland Forward examines the 2021 IIJA and comes up with four key principles—stressing public investments, community involvement, regulations and standards, and economic growth—designed to ensure the money is being spent efficiently and in service of the communities the law is intended to help.

This resource in intended to help support the Southern Border Broadband Consortium’s mission of identifying broadband connectivity issues in Imperial and San Diego Counties. It includes strategic, step-by-step plans—along with mapping and analytics—to help the consortium achieve its goal of 98 percent broadband deployment.

This report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond analyzes broadband data from the FCC, Census Bureau, Pew Research Center, Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, and other sources to understand the depths of the digital divide in the bank’s district.

This report from July 2019 summarizes an effort by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City to better understand the digital divide and to find ways to close it. The authors’ findings are divided into seven categories reflecting the themes related to the lessons learned by those whom they interviewed.

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This paper uses data from Form 477 and the Census of Agriculture to measure how broadband connections affect the production and sales of agricultural products. The author found that farms that had faster speeds of connectivity had greater crop yields and fewer operating expenses.

This paper examines the digital divide with regard to mobile devices and broadband. The authors research whether digital divides exist based on the mobile connection technology (e.g., Wi-Fi, 3G, LTE) and the download and upload speeds.

The FCC’s 2020 Broadband Deployment Report provides an update on the state of access to broadband in the United States. The report notes that, despite the findings that more people are gaining access to broadband each year, the work in closing the digital divide is not complete.

The FCC’s 2020 Broadband Deployment Report provides an update on the state of access to broadband in the United States. The report notes that, despite the findings that more people are gaining access to broadband each year, the work in closing the digital divide is not complete.