by Caitlin Schwartz | Aug 3, 2020 | COVID-19 MEDIA, Digital Inclusion News
This interview by Anna de Haro at iHeartMedia addresses the complexities and urgency around reaching digital inclusion and highlights some resources available. In the US internet is very much a commodity, not a utility, and is very lightly regulated. In part, this is...
by Bill Callahan | Jun 30, 2020 | COVID-19, Digital Inclusion News, Policy Positions
United States Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon yesterday introduced the “Emergency Broadband Connections Act”, which would create a new Emergency Benefit for Broadband Service to provide free or low-cost broadband service for low-income families as well as...
by Sabrina Roach | Jun 3, 2020 | Digital Inclusion News, Digital Navigator
Through an NDIA Working Group of digital inclusion practitioners revising their work to be socially distant and/or remote, NDIA has created a baseline job description for a Digital Navigator. In the great tradition of “surfing the internet as we build the internet”,...
by Bill Callahan | May 26, 2020 | COVID-19, Digital Inclusion News, Policy Positions
The three federal agencies that oversee U.S. banks and savings institutions have adopted special Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) guidelines for the COVID-19 emergency period which, among other things, allow regulated lenders to seek CRA credit for “Loans,...
by Bill Callahan | May 20, 2020 | COVID-19, Digital Inclusion News, Policy Positions
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal agency that oversees national banks and savings associations, has just added support for community digital inclusion programs to its official list of “qualified activities” that could help a regulated...
by Bill Callahan | May 13, 2020 | COVID-19, Digital Inclusion News, Policy Positions
The new, three trillion dollar COVID-19 relief proposal (the “HEROES act”) unveiled yesterday by Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives includes $8.8 billion to fund an Emergency Broadband Benefit for consumers who are eligible for Lifeline phone...
