Benton Institute for Broadband & Society - County

"A Very Rude Culture Shock"

benton — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 11:31:54 +0000

Barbara Drӧher Kline thought she knew what she was getting into when she moved halfway across the country and bought a 1890s farmhouse in rural Le Sueur county, Minnesota. Contractors advised her to tear the house down, but she loved a fixer-upper, especially after she had refined her remodeling skills on her previous home in California, a redwood log cabin near San Francisco. Drӧher Kline wasn’t scared by a rural lifestyle either. Both she and her husband, John Kline, had roots in the state, and he had grown up nearby. The plot twist was something even HGTV had not prepared her for: slow internet. The internet service provider for her new home, Frontier Communications, offered outdated technology with frequent outages and notoriously poor customer service. Over the next two years, from 2016 to 2018, she would jump between various internet companies, trying to secure the high-speed connections she needed to work remotely. The experience even inspired her to run for state office.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/digital-divide-diaries/culture-shock

Teaser:

How one homebuyer found herself working remotely, without internet.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Adam Echelman

Send date:

Mon, 04/24/2023

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 4/21/2023

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Mon, 04/24/2023

Coverage Type:

Marginalized Populations

Individuals who primarily Reside in a Rural Area

2024 National Findings Report: Creating Thriving Communities Through Civic Participation

Grace Tepper — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 16:44:57 +0000

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps' (CHR&R) 2024 National Findings Report highlights the importance of civic infrastructure and spaces to connect and be informed, with a focus on access to local news, broadband internet and public libraries. CHR&R calls attention to structural barriers like policies, laws and practices that can create obstacles to forms of participation such as voting and worker unionizing. Key findings include:

The healthiest counties, where people live long and well, have well-resourced civic infrastructure, including a more accessible information environment (local news outlets, broadband access and public libraries), compared to counties among the least healthy. Counties with well-resourced civic infrastructure and accessible information environments also offer more social and economic opportunities for good health.
Civic infrastructure, including accessibility of the information environment, is under-resourced among counties along the U.S.-Mexico Border, within the Black Belt Region and Appalachia and surrounding American Indian/Alaska Native tribal areas.
Regions of our country that erect or reinforce structural barriers to civic health — or discriminatory policies and practices, such as laws that create obstacles to voting — limit participation in civic life. These structural barriers are more common in regions with specific histories of structural racism and disinvestment.

Benton Content:

https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/findings-and-insights/2024-national-finding…

Teaser:

The 2024 National Findings Report highlights the importance of civic infrastructure and spaces to connect and be informed, with a focus on access to local news, broadband internet and public libraries

Source:

University of Wisconsin

Author:

Send date:

Thu, 04/18/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 4/17/2024

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Wed, 04/17/2024

Coverage Type:

Research

Community Anchor Institutions

Digital Content

Digital Equity/Digital Inclusion

FCC chair holds roundtable on net neutrality in Campbell (CA) ahead of agency vote

benton — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 11:29:24 +0000

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel held a roundtable discussion about the vote on net neutrality with community leaders and agencies at the Santa Clara County Fire Department in Campbell, California. She chose the site to focus on how restoring net neutrality would benefit public safety, pointing to how that very fire department had had its internet access throttled—or cut off—automatically when it hit its internet use cap during the 2018 Mendocino Fire. Chairwoman Rosenworcel heard from the department’s assistant fire chief, Brian Glass, who said fire agencies suddenly couldn’t coordinate resources out in the field. “The firefighters banded together using personal devices from different carriers that maybe weren’t being throttled or hadn’t reached the cap in order to get the job done,” Glass said.

Benton Content:

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/fcc-chair-roundtable-net-neutrality-campbe…

Teaser:

Discussion with community leaders and agencies at the Santa Clara County Fire Department

Source:

KNTV

Send date:

Tue, 04/09/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 4/8/2024

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Tue, 04/09/2024

Coverage Type:

Reporting

Agenda

Report on past event

Emergency Communications

Federal Agency

Federal Communications Commission

Internet/Broadband

Regulatory classification

Legislation

Communications Act of 1934

Telecommunications Act of 1996

AT&T to deliver fiber-powered broadband to more than 530 customers in rural Lawrence County (IN)

zwalker@benton.org — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 21:32:47 +0000

Lawrence County (IN) announced a nearly $2.6 million public-private project with AT&T to expand AT&T Fiber to an estimated 530 customer locations in rural areas of the county. AT&T will invest more than $1.6 million, and Lawrence County will invest $950,000 in a project to provide fiber services to residential and business addresses in rural areas of west central Lawrence County. Extensive planning and engineering work for this project will begin in the second quarter of 2024. The network buildout is expected to be complete within two years. This is the third public-private project announced between AT&T and Lawrence County since 2023.

Benton Content:

https://www.wbiw.com/2024/03/28/att-to-deliver-fiber-powered-broadband-to-more-t…

Teaser:

AT&T twill expand AT&T Fiber to an estimated 530 customer locations in rural areas of Lawrence County

Source:

WBIW

Send date:

Fri, 03/29/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/28/2024

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Thu, 03/28/2024

Coverage Type:

Internet providers have left rural Americans behind. One county is fighting back

Grace Tepper — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 15:46:22 +0000

Congress is spending $65 billion to connect the rural United States to the world. Orangeburg (SC) knows the stakes better than anywhere. Like hundreds of rural counties across the US, Orangeburg is ignored by commercial broadband service providers who think it’s not profitable to lay fiber optic lines in the area. In the absence of service from companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Charter, counties and small towns in rural America could build broadband networks for their residents themselves, which can make the difference between prosperity and poverty. But large telecom corporations have also successfully lobbied at least 20 states to block municipalities from competing. The problem of rural internet access pits one democracy against another: local governments against state power. It also addresses information equity – the idea that someone in the rural US should have the same ability to participate in the country’s digital economy as someone in a big city. A digital democracy cannot abide unequal digital citizenship. Orangeburg – mostly rural, Black, and poor – started waging war against state regulations earlier than most rural communities, aided by one hard-headed local engineer and a congressman who has spent the last two decades trying to convince Congress that rural America is worth it.

Benton Content:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/17/rural-broadband-us-internet-p…

Teaser:

Congress is spending $65 billion to connect the rural United States to the world; Orangeburg, South Carolina, knows the stakes better than anywhere.

Source:

Guardian, The

Author:

George Chidi

Send date:

Tue, 03/19/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/18/2024

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Mon, 03/18/2024

Coverage Type:

Reporting

Digital Equity/Digital Inclusion

Digital Divide

Federal Broadband Programs

Internet/Broadband

Infrastructure

Competition/Antitrust

Affordability/Cost/Price

Municipal Networks

Universal Broadband

Legislation

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Level of Government

County

Marginalized Populations

Chairwoman Rosenworcel Announces Members of Intergovernmental Advisory Committee

benton — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 11:52:51 +0000

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the new members of the Intergovernmental Advisory Committee. This advisory panel provides guidance, expertise, and recommendations to the FCC on telecommunications issues affecting local, county, state and Tribal governments. The Committee is comprised of elected officials of municipal, county, state, and Tribal governments. It is an official advisory committee made up of members appointed by the Chairwoman who, together as a body, make recommendations to the Commission on issues related to increasing deployment and adoption of broadband services and any other task necessary to help local, state, and Tribal government officials clarify or explain Commission rules and policies to their constituents and other members of the public. Members of the IAC include Chair Garlin Gilchrist II, Lieutenant Governor of Michigan, and Vice Chair Marshall Pierite, Chairman of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana.

State Executive Representatives

Roy Cooper, Governor, North Carolina Designee: Nate Denny, Deputy Secretary, Broadband and Digital Equity, Department of Information Technology
Henry McMaster, Governor, South Carolina Designee: James Stritzinger, Director, South Carolina Broadband Office, South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff
Garlin Gilchrist II, Lieutenant Governor, Michigan (Chair) Designee: Eric Frederick, Chief Connectivity Officer, Michigan High-Speed Internet Office, Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity

Municipal Representatives

Tim Rosener, Mayor, Sherwood, Oregon
Joseph Goldstein, Marietta City Council Member, Marietta, Georgia
Chris Amorose Groomes, Mayor, Dublin, Ohio
Susan Farber, City Council Representative, Dubuque, Iowa
Dr. Alix Desulme, Mayor, City of North Miami,
Florida Erik Sickinger, Town Council Member, Irmo, South Carolina
Dr. Adriana Rocha Garcia, Town Council Member, San Antonio,
Texas Ted Wheeler, Mayor, Seattle, Washington Designee: Andrew Speer, Franchise Utility Program Manager

County Representatives

Dr. Jonathan Todd Finnell, Superintendent of Schools, Imperial County, California
Gregg Weiss, Commissioner, Palm Beach County, FL
Tarryl Clark, Commissioner, Stearns County, Minnesota
Alan Perdue, Commissioner, Guilford County, North Carolina
Joanna Mackenzie, County Judge, Hudspeth County, Texas
J.D. Clark, County Judge, Wise County, Texas
Terry Cook, Commissioner, Williamson County, Texas

City Attorney Representative

Victor Gordo, Mayor, Pasadena, California Designee: Javan Rad, Chief Assistant City Attorney

State Legislative Representatives

Cindy Ryu, State Representative, Washington
Louis Riggs, State Representative, Missouri
Matt Pierce, State Representative, Indiana
Angelo J. Puppolo, State Representative, Massachusetts

State Public Utility Commission Representatives

Tony Evers, Governor, Wisconsin Designee: Alyssa Kenney, Director of Broadband and Digital Equity, Wisconsin State Broadband Office, Wisconsin Public Service Commission

Dan Watermeier, Chair, Nebraska Public Service Commission Designee: Cullen Robbins, Director of Telecommunications, Nebraska Universal Service Fund Department, Nebraska Public Service Commission

Muriel Bowser, Mayor, Washington, D.C. Designee: Thaddeus Johnson, Chief of Staff, Office of Technical and Regulatory Affairs, Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia

Tribal Representatives

Paul Russell, Vice President, Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Arizona Designee: Orlando Moreno, Director of Community and Economic Development of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation
Jarred-Michael Erickson, Chairperson, Colville Business Council, Confederate Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Washington Designee: Ernie Rasmussen, Executive Director, Bigfoot Communications of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
Richard Peterson, President, Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska Designee: Christopher Cropley, Director, Tidal Network
Marshall Pierite, Chairman and CEO of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana (Vice-Chair)

Benton Content:

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-announces-new-members-intergovernmental-advisor…

Teaser:

New members of the FCC’s Intergovernmental Advisory Committee

Source:

Federal Communications Commission

Send date:

Tue, 03/12/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/11/2024

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Tue, 03/12/2024

Coverage Type:

Public Notice

Federal Agency

Federal Communications Commission

A Leader for Allegan County's Broadband Journey

benton — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 11:37:40 +0000

Allegan County’s journey to universal connectivity has overcome a number of obstacles: accurately determining the extent of connectivity gaps, exploring potential strategic solutions, and tackling costs in a manner palatable to the community. Advancing this initiative required a leader with deep industry knowledge and a strong connection to the community. A leader who would refuse to take no for an answer and demand that incumbent internet service providers work with her, rather than against her. Jill Dunham, the Broadband Project Manager for Allegan County, has been instrumental in the county’s journey. Currently, only 472 of over 44,000 households remain without a funded plan for a high-speed internet connection, and Jill continues to drive the efforts to connect these remaining homes, too.

[Dr. Pierrette Renee Dagg, Ph.D is a Benton Institute Digital Opportunity Fund Fellow, the Director of Technology Impact Research at Merit Network. The aim of her work is to bridge the gap between academic scholarship and practical application to advance issues of technology understanding and information equity.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/leader-allegan-countys-broadband-journey

Teaser:

Allegan County’s journey to universal connectivity has overcome a number of obstacles

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Pierrette Renée Dagg

Send date:

Mon, 03/11/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/8/2024

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Mon, 03/11/2024

Coverage Type:

Op-Ed

Digital Equity/Digital Inclusion

Marginalized Populations

Individuals who primarily Reside in a Rural Area

Policymakers

Signing on: Westmoreland's 'high priority areas' soon to get online

zwalker@benton.org — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 20:12:07 +0000

Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring to bring internet service to four high priority areas of Westmoreland County (PA). Westmoreland County commissioners have partnered with Verizon to bring broadband service to 400 locations in parts of Derry, Fairfield and Ligonier townships that currently have no service. The total cost of the project is $3.5 million, with the county picking up $1.7 million, or 48 percent of the total cost, and Verizon contributing $1.8 million or 52 percent of the cost. Construction of the necessary infrastructure is expected to take a year, with county funding coming from Westmoreland’s share of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, economic stimulus legislation that was enacted in 2021. The sites without internet access were identified in a 2023 feasibility report. The next step in the Westmoreland Broadband Program is a competitive bidding process to identify internet service providers interested in partnering with the county to expand service to other places lacking adequate service. Contract awards are expected to be announced in early spring. Residents can find out whether their home has adequate broadband service by referring to the county’s new service area map.

Benton Content:

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/2024/03/04/broadband-internet-westmoreland…

Teaser:

Westmoreland County (PA) commissioners have partnered with Verizon to bring broadband service to 400 locations in the county

Source:

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Author:

Kris Mamula

Send date:

Fri, 03/08/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/7/2024

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Thu, 03/07/2024

Coverage Type:

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)

Level of Government

County

Headlines Specific Topic:

Coronavirus and Connectivity

How to Build a Public Broadband Network

benton — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 12:39:10 +0000

For decades, public broadband networks have been successfully serving hundreds of communities with fast, robust, and affordable internet access. Unlike private-sector networks, municipal, tribal, and other community- and member-owned broadband networks are focused on ensuring universal, robust connectivity at affordable prices. The results have been remarkable. Small cities and regions like Chattanooga, Tennessee; Wilson, North Carolina; Morgan, Utah; and the Massachusetts Berkshire region have been transformed into vibrant centers of economic opportunity, education, and culture. Yet for all of the progress that public broadband networks have made in recent years, there are still many communities that want to explore network ownership but don’t know where to begin. That’s why the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB), partnering with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, has developed a handbook that sets out, in simple terms, the key decisions a community and its leaders must make, as well as the concrete steps they must take to build a successful public network. Own Your Internet: How to Build a Public Broadband Network, authored by Bill Coleman, also provides a list of resources that can help with both—including law firms, financial advisors, public relations firms, construction firms, equipment vendors, grant applications and management platforms, operational and business support systems, and firms that design, build, and operate networks.

[Gigi Sohn is Executive Director of the American Association for Public Broadband and Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/how-build-public-broadband-network

Teaser:

Own Your Internet: How to Build a Public Broadband Network

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Gigi Sohn

Send date:

Wed, 03/06/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/5/2024

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Wed, 03/06/2024

Coverage Type:

Headlines Specific Topic:

Benton Foundation

Affordable Connectivity Program Bridge

zwalker@benton.org — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:25:35 +0000

This white paper ultimately represents the story of how our newly formed office found an efficient and effective way to address the digital divide in our community through the development of a novel local benefit program, as told by our associate Augusta Groeschel-Johnson. We accomplished all this by first and foremost listening to the advice of others, whether it was Department of Social Services case workers, our Procurement officers, or the Maryland team that developed its statewide benefit and whose input helped us click the final pieces into place. Building our program as a supplement to the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) allowed us to minimize administrative overhead and fraud risk, while providing these funds to community members with a demonstrated need. Developing our program with the input of so many partners will allow us to chart new paths, ones we had already mapped out before ACP fell in our lap.

Benton Content:

https://www.albemarle.org/home/showpublisheddocument/21259/638452234534311281

Teaser:

Making broadband affordable in Albemarle County

Source:

The Broadband Accessibility and Affordability Office of Albemarle County

Author:

Jason Inofuentes

Send date:

Wed, 03/06/2024

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/5/2024