Category: Broadband access

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Broadband access Digital Divide Education Healthcare

Call for Action on Neglected Policy Proposals

Internet access in NC

NC faith leaders make a call for action on neglected policy proposals, including broadband access.

The health needs and education needs of North Carolinians are writ large by the coronavirus pandemic, forcing us to adapt on both fronts.

A major piece of this adaptation depends on the internet. Without high-speed internet, the sick cannot consult physicians and the children cannot complete school assignments.

In much the way that the Rural Electrification Act transformed our landscape from darkness to light in the mid-20th century, broadband access can transform shrinking worlds into endless horizons now in the 21st century.

The ripple effects of such an initiative will extend far beyond health and education into most sectors of the economy.

Read more at: http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2020/07/02/nc-faith-leaders-call-for-action-on-neglected-policy-proposals/

Consider supporting our WNC Broadband Project today. Contact a member of our leadership team.

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Broadband access Digital Divide Economic Development Education Rural

Broadband Reality in North Carolina

Broadband Reality

The FCC reports that 93% of North Carolina’s population has access to the internet at the FCC threshold speeds of 25 Mbps. Of those without access, nearly 640,000 people live in sparsely populated areas.

How is internet broadband accessed? Broadband is accessed through a number of technologies including:

  • Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
  • Cable Modem
  • Fiber-Optic Cable (Fiber)
  • Wireless
  • Satellite
  • Broadband over Powerline (BPL)

As of December 2014, only 16% of North Carolinians adopted broadband in their homes compared to the national average of 37% at the recommended speed threshold (25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload).

At this adoption rate, North Carolina ranked 40th out of the 45 reporting states.

More details are at:
https://www.ednc.org/perspective-the-reality-of-broadband-in-north-carolina/

broadband #NCSTEMScoreCard #StrategiesThatEngageMinds #economicgrowth

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Broadband access Broadband Technology Digital Divide

The Challenges Facing Satellite-Based Internet

We have reported elsewhere on the challenges that satellite-based internet developers are facing as they seek to enter the the broadband market in a meaningful way (see “The New Outlook for Satellite-Based Internet,” January 28, 2020). In his article for Wired, “SpaceX is Banking on Satellite Internet. Maybe It Shouldn’t” (May 15 and 23, 2019), Daniel Oberhaus observes that the economics that prospective projects–such as Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, among others–will face are daunting at best, and possibly even prohibitive. In addition to competition from other satellite-based internet providers, Oberhaus notes, Musk’s Starlink will face a host of technological challenges stemming from low-earth broadband satellite constellations, stiff competition from more affordable land-based providers, and a potential rival in the global implementation of 5G networks within the next 5-10 years. To learn more about these and other challenges to satellite-based internet, visit Wired.

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Broadband access Digital Divide

The Legislative Obstacle to High-Speed, Affordable Broadband in Our Communities

North Carolina and twenty-one other states block or legally prevent local communities–towns, cities, and counties–from setting up their own internet service. The result–according to BroadbandNow, a website that allows consumers to find and compare internet service providers (ISPs) in their area–is often inadequate, costly, and low-speed internet service, particularly in rural and less densely populated areas. There are signs, however, that this may be changing. Since 2019, Arkansas, California, and Connecticut have joined the ranks of those states that allow municipality-based ISPs. More recently, as a result of the pandemic, legislators are beginning to see that there is a cost to the digital divide in their districts: families struggle to support their children’s digital needs for remote instruction, area businesses cannot take advantage of online opportunities, telemedicine fails to reach those most in need. To learn more about these barriers to locally developed and owned ISPs, visit PCmag UK. To read BroadbandNow’s full 2020 Municipal Broadband Report, please visit BroadandNow.

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Broadband access Digital Divide Education

Maine Takes on the Digital Divide and Provides Broadband Access for All Its Students

After Maine closed its schools in response to the pandemic and made the move to remote instruction, the state’s Department of Education realized that online learning could not equitably engaged by all students.  To address this challenge directly, the Maine DOE partnered with the Governor’s Office, the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, ConnectME, the business community and foundations, to ensure that that every student in the state had internet access.  To learn how Maine addressed its digital divide and leveled the playing field for thousands of students, visit WABI5. 

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Broadband access Broadband Technology Digital Divide Education Federal Efforts

How the Covid-19 Pandemic Will Change Our Understanding of National Security and Underscore the Need for High-Speed Broadband Expansion

In a recent article, CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen and Arizona State University Professor Daniel Rothenberg explore how the pandemic is rapidly becoming a “hinge event,” very much like the Great Depression or 9/11, “reshaping the world, politically, socially and economically and … revealing major structural weaknesses in American society and undermining already fraying trust in the capacity of the US government to respond effectively to core security challenges.” Covid-19 will force us to rethink our concepts of national security and to reassess what is important to our families, our communities, and our nation. Among the changes that Bergen and Rothenberg see on the horizon are increased use of telemedicine; the expansion of remote work; the redefinition of higher education and growth on online instruction; and a profound need for affordable and equitably distributed high-speed broadband. To learn more, visit CNN: Opinion.

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Broadband access Digital Divide Federal Efforts Rural

US House Energy and Commerce Committee Announces Legislation to Expand Broadband Access

The US House Energy and Commerce Committee has announced plans to adopt legislation that would invest $80 billion over five years to expand high-speed broadband infrastructure nationwide, to ensure internet affordability, and to enhance digital technology adoption. The House Democratic Plan to Connect All Americans to Affordable Broadband Internet is led by Congressman Frank Pallone Jr (D-NJ), Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Congressman James E. Clyburn (D-SC), House Majority Whip and Chairman of the House Democratic Rural Broadband Task Force. To learn more about this important legislation, visit the US House Energy and Commerce Committee website.

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Broadband access Digital Divide Federal Efforts

Director of NC DIT’s Broadband Infrastructure Office Testifies to Congress about Broadband Access

Jeff Sural, the Director of the NC Department of Information Technology’s Broadband Infrastructure Office, testified before Congress in Februrary on efforts across the state to address digital inclusion and affordability. The hearing on “Empowering and Connecting Communities through Digital Equity and Internet Adoption” explored the barriers to broadband access and internet adoption. To view the hearing, visit this US House Committee on Energy and Commerce Livestream recording.

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Broadband access Broadband in WNC Digital Divide Rural

Families in WNC Must Adapt to Limited Broadband Access

With the closure of schools across Western North Carolina, families have been forced to adapt in the face of critical gaps in broadband service, in order to ensure that their students can participate in remote learning. A recent Asheville Citizen-Times article by Brian Gordon examines the impact of these obstacles to online learning in WNC and follows the story of the McGoverns, whose three school-age children have to complete their coursework using the hot spot on their mother’s cellphone. To learn more about how the McGoverns and other families like them are confronting the barriers to broadband access, visit the Asheville Citizen-Times.

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Broadband access Digital Divide Rural

A Conversation on Our Nation’s Digital Divide

Shira Ovide, the writer of the New York Times On Tech newsletter talks to Cecilia Kang, a Times technology journalist, about our country’s unaddressed digital divide, particularly as it affects our rural communities. To read “Why Rural America’s Digital Divide Persists,” visit the New York Times.