Roughly 71,600 Sonoma County households could have free high-speed internet service via a federal subsidy program, yet only about 10% of those who are eligible have enrolled. Marin and Napa counties have similarly low enrollment. In Mendocino and Lake counties, where more than half of […]
Author: Alana O'Brien
As schools open up, all school districts and county offices of education are invited to participate in the Get Connected! Initiative. Get Connected! promotes the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides a monthly discount of up to $30 off home internet to qualifying families of […]
Tim Hebb lives in one of more than 1.6 million households in Los Angeles that qualify for a new federal subsidy program for high-speed internet service. And according to the Biden administration, he ought to be able to use that $30-a-month subsidy to get free […]
Students all know the pains – dropped Zoom calls, spotty reception and failed downloads. COVID-19 has changed college campuses forever, expanding the classroom to wherever we can connect to the internet. While the transition has opened more access for students, it also leaves behind many, […]
On Monday, the White House revealed that 20 broadband providers across the country, including five of the largest cable TV and telephone companies, had agreed to provide “sufficiently high-speed” connections at no more than $30 a month to qualifying homes. Eight of those serve communities […]
Senator Thomas J. Umberg (D – Orange County) was on hand at the Anaheim Union High School District Office to help distribute 400 Chromebook laptops to students from Frontier Communications. “The pandemic has highlighted some of California’s infrastructure deficiencies with startling clarity. Some of those […]
In Cities-Today.com, Sarah Wray describes an interesting public-private partnership. “The Household Internet Access Initiative (HIAI), in partnership with Helium and the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), is based on residents hosting hotspot nodes on a decentralized Internet of Things (IoT) network. These mine cryptocurrency that will be used to […]
Stakeholders looking for broadband funding for their communities at a National Telecommunications and Information Administration listening session on Wednesday were split on whether funding should go to middle-mile infrastructure. The NTIA, which is administering the $42.5 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act under […]
With the COVID pandemic surging into 2022 and complicating recovery and a return to normalcy, the conversation about closing the digital divide remains a critical component of closing equity gaps in California. Luckily, the conversation is resulting in more than just words thanks to efforts […]
The board of directors of the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance (CCEEB) has unanimously elected Sunne Wright McPeak as its tenth chair. McPeak succeeds longtime chair Walter McGuire in leading CCEEB’s efforts to ensure the resiliency of California’s environment, its communities, and its economy. “My […]