Category: Digital Inequality

#FIBERDelivers

Post author By Marc Czarnecki
Post date May 14, 2021

WNC Needs To Build Big and Bold Broadband Infrastructure

Why does Western North Carolina need to build big and bold broadband infrastructure?

#FIBERDelivers

Fastest internet
Best investment
More connected education
Essential healthcare
5G access
More jobs
Better gaming
Faster streaming
Robust teleworking

With a once-in-a-generation infrastructure opportunity ahead of us, now is the time to aim higher, do better and invest in technology built to last. For broadband, in many cases that means fiber. Fiber delivers not just what we need today but also holds promise for what will be needed in the future, as more Americans engage in teleworking, remote learning and telehealth, and as our country pursues 5G superiority.
Shirley Bloomfield, CEO, TCA

#WeAgree at the WNC Broadband Project.

Thanks to the @NTCAconnect – the Rural Broadband Association and their Chief Executive Officer @sbloomfield15 Shirley Bloomfield for advocating for #rural #broadband!

We can remove the #digitaldivide.

Broadband access Buncombe Community Development Digital Inequality Local Government Senate Bill Terri Wells Tim Love

Buncombe Government Can Not Help

Post author By admin
Post date May 6, 2021

The reality, the needed broadband infrastructure to reach all homes; is not in Buncombe County and other Western North Carolina communities; and our local government can’t currently build and lease the infrastructure to providers. Could Senate Bill 689 pass to allow local governments to help?

Love, Wells and others hoping to tap the arriving federal aid are watching various legislative proposals, especially Senate Bill 689, which would allow local governments to build the infrastructure and lease it to providers. The bill would also allow the use of grants, such as the rescue plan.
Citizen Times

In the mountains with low populations density and a low customer count, like when rural electrification was implemented; our state needs to allow local governments to create the needed infrastructure where it is geographically too expensive to build broadband networks.

Burgess, J. (2021, May 6). 35,000 Buncombe homes, businesses don’t have broadband, and NC law says the county can’t help. The Asheville Citizen Times; Asheville Citizen Times. https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/2021/05/06/state-law-stops-buncombe-county-helping-households-broadband/4958393001/

‌Also See

2021 Broadband State Legislation

Tags Broadband Infrastructure

Broadband access Broadband funding Broadband Technology Digital Inequality

Drew Clark – Telecom Attorney, The CommLaw Group. Editor and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast

Broadband Breakfast has provided continuous text and video content in 2020 on the topic of broadband in America.

As we approach the end of the year, it is good to revisit broadband stories of 2020.

Drew’s ‘top 10’ Broadband Topics

10 – The fall of China, ZTE and Huawei broadband manufacturers

9 – Spectrum sharing, new technologies are enabling radio frequencies to be used in new and more innovative ways

8 – Open access networks, new fiber networks

7 – Traditional telephone network future

6 – Broadband is infrastructure that needs valid maps

5 – Reverse-auctions and rural broadband / RDOF – Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

4 – Big tech lawsuits, consumer & innovation balance

3 – COVID Teleworking / Working and Learning

2 – Digital Inequality

1 – Federal Government & infrastructure investments

In Western North Carolina, state and federal broadband topics will continue to drive how and when broadband improvements will be made.

Please contact a member of our WNC Broadband Project Team with any questions you may have.

Clark, D. (2020, December 30). Drew Clark: The Top 10 Broadband Stories of 2020, and What They Mean for 2021. Broadbandbreakfast.com. http://broadbandbreakfast.com/2020/12/drew-clark-the-top-10-broadband-stories-of-2020-and-what-they-mean-for-2021/

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Advocacy Broadband access Broadband in WNC Digital Divide Digital Inclusion Digital Inequality Economic Development Education

Homework Gap

Post author By Marc Czarnecki
Post date December 14, 2020

Now a Learning Gap In Rural America

I am already shocked. As a father of two digitally-connected children, I know first hand of the significant value of having broadband available. The digital value is having computers available, the knowledge of how to apply computers, with broadband being available on demand, to engage with society for knowledge, communication, health, and more.

Additionally, having volunteered at several area schools and community centers, I see the digital divide. If students don’t have broadband available at home, immediately the student is disconnected from our digital world of learning opportunities.

The pandemic has made getting computers and internet connections to households with school-age children a priority. The “homework gap” is sizable. Before the pandemic, some 16.9 million children under the age of 18 lived in households without wireline internet service and 7.3 million live in homes without a desktop, laptop, or tablet computer. What was a homework gap is now a learning gap.
John B. Horrigan

Digital Tools & Learning. (2020, December 10). Benton Foundation. https://www.benton.org/blog/digital-tools-learning

Also See

the ‘Homework Gap’ Video Will Shock You

The author of this article, Marc Czarnecki; helps to minimize the rural divide in America by supporting the WNC Broadband Project.

The WNC Broadband Team advocates for the necessary broadband improvements for our #digitallives.

Tags homeworkgap

Broadband in WNC Digital Inequality Policy

No Internet

Post author By admin
Post date December 8, 2020

Many in NC Can’t Adequately Learn, Get Healthcare

Locked out: Without internet, tens of thousands of North Carolinians can’t adequately learn, get health care

Nearly a third of all North Carolina households lack high-speed internet, essentially cutting them off from crucial education and health care services; most of these areas are rural and often in communities of color.
Report by the Andrea Harris Social, Economic, Environmental, and Health Equity Task Force

Sorg, Lisa. “Locked out: Without Internet, Tens of Thousands of North Carolinians Can’t Adequately Learn, Get Health Care.” NC Policy Watch, 7 Dec. 2020, www.ncpolicywatch.com/2020/12/07/locked-out-without-internet-tens-of-thousands-of-north-carolinians-cant-adequately-learn-get-health-care/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2020.

Tags No Internet