Image
Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Field Reports: Municipal Broadband and Digital Equity in Baltimore
By
on
This week, we bring you a special field report from Maryland-based radio and podcast producer Matt Purdy. Through interviews with citizens, digital equity advocates, and the city's new Director of Broadband and Digital Equity, Purdy documents the connectivity struggles that have persisted in Baltimore's historically marginalized neighborhoods for decades.
Those challenges have only become more pronounced with the pandemic, prompting local officials to begin making moves in the direction of something we've not yet seen in a community the size of Baltimore: building a city-owned, open access fiber network.
This is a great story, so we won't give anything else a way. Listen below, or here.
Related Stories
Save The Date: Coalition Building Will Take Center Stage at Next #B4DE Event
With Digital Inclusion Week 2024 only a month away, registration is open for the next Building for Digital Equity livestream event on October 7. The theme will be “Coalition Building for Success” and will bring together hundreds of frontline digital inclusion practitioners from across the nation to delve into how coalitions are finding success in pushing the digital equity movement forward
Harrison County, Texas Strikes Partnership With Etex Telephone Cooperative
Harrison County, Texas officials say they’re poised to use the county’s remaining Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds to strike a fiber expansion partnership with Etex Communications, a subsidiary of the locally-owned Etex Telephone Cooperative. The Harrison County Commissioners Court says it’s putting the finishing touches on a $4.5 million public-public partnership with Etex that will help deliver fiber access to the Western end of the heavily underserved Texas county with the help of $1.5 million in federal ARPA funds.
NDIA’s Angela Siefer Among IP3 Awards Winners
Public Knowledge announces 21st Annual IP3 Award Winners. Among the four recipients is Angela Siefer, Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), recognizing her as a national leader of the digital equity movement.
Alpine County Open Access Fiber Among Big Winners In Latest California FFA Grants
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has announced another $237 million in new grants that will help fund broadband expansion across 21 different California towns, cities, counties, and tribal communities. Alpine, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Santa Barbara, and Tulare counties are among the latest winners in California’s $2 billion Last Mile Federal Funding Account Grant Program (FFA), an extension of California’s ambitious Broadband For All initiative, a $6 billion effort aimed at dramatically boosting broadband competition and access across the Golden State.
ILSR Joins Digital Inclusion Advocates in Atlanta to Elevate Local Voices
Jordan Pittman, Digital Equity Coordinator with ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks initiative, will join digital inclusion advocates in Atlanta this week for "Elevating Local Voices To Drive Impact on Digital Equity" event.
Paul Bunyan Communications Payout To Members Is Not A Tall Tale
The northern Minnesota telephone cooperative, which serves 30,000 members across its 6,000-square-mile service area, has announced it is returning over $3 million to its members this year. This most recent payout isn’t Paul Bunyan Communications first, or largest. In 2022, members were returned $6.3 million and in 2018 it was $2.2 million.