Individuals who primarily Reside in a Rural Area

Digital equity—or, digital opportunity, if you prefer—is having a moment. The US is making an unprecedented investment to ensure that individuals and communities have the capacity to fully participate in our society and economy. This is a huge undertaking with momentous implications on the future of the Nation. Each state has been asked to envision how life there can be transformed by achieving digital equity.

Dleł Taaneets is the traditional name of my hometown of Rampart; it means “the hanging moose hide,” which the bluffs near our village mimic in color. My ancestors survived on these lands by following the lifeways of the season: spruce tips and birds in spring, salmon and plants in the summer, berries and moose in winter, trapping in the winter. Living off the lands of Alaska is unforgiving due to extreme weather, but my lineage endured and thrived by maintaining respect for one another, having gratitude to the animals and plants, and honoring the gorgeous lands that sustained them.

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 Department of Agriculture (USDA) is partnering with rural cooperatives, local organizations and Tribes to support high-speed internet deployment in 11 states. USDA is awarding $5.2 million in cooperative agreements through the Broadband Technical Assistance Program, which is funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

One of the trends that is a concern for internet service providers (ISPs) is plans by State Broadband Offices to force Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) winners to charge low rates for broadband. One argument for lowering rates is that the government is paying a big portion of the cost of building the broadband networks, and it ought to be able to extract concessions from the ISPs for taking the grant funding. In most places, BEAD will be used for the most sparsely populated places, which in many instances also have the toughest topography and construction challenges.

Californians spend an average of $84 per month to connect to the internet—and some of the most vulnerable groups, including older adults, veterans and people with disabilities, tend to pay even more. So the state is spending billions of dollars to make broadband more affordable and available under its Broadband for All plan.

Spectrum announced construction is underway on several fiber-optic network expansion projects that will bring gigabit broadband and other Spectrum services to more than 400 homes and small businesses in Pettis County, Missouri. The buildout is part of Spectrum’s approximately $5 billion investment in unserved rural areas, which includes $1.2 billion won in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction.

High-speed broadband internet access is a critically important issue for many aspects of daily life, yet populations in rural areas are often unserved or underserved with reliable internet connectivity. Expanding broadband internet coverage in rural areas may have significant economic potential, especially since it enables precision farming which in turn increases yields, particularly for row crops such as corn and soybeans.

Spectrum announced the launch of Spectrum Internet, Mobile, TV and Voice services to more than 1950 homes and small businesses in Barnwell County (SC). Spectrum’s newly constructed fiber-optic network buildout in Barnwell County is part of the company’s approximately $5 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF)-related investment in unserved rural communities, partly offset by $1.2 billion in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) RDOF auction. The company’s RDOF expansion will provide broadband access to 1.3 million customer locations across 24 states in the coming years.

Connect Humanity, a non-profit impact investor, announced it is collaborating with Microsoft to support high-speed internet access and adoption in underserved Appalachian communities. Appalachia is one of the least digitally connected regions of the United States, with households 31 percent more likely than the national population to lack a broadband subscription. In some Appalachian counties, fewer than 20 percent of households use the internet at broadband speeds in a time when connectivity is critically important for education, health, and remote work.