In our third episode on the Building for Digital Equity podcast, we are joined by Mikhail Sundust, Executive Director of the Digital Connect Initiative (DCI) at GRTI - Gila River Telecommunications Incorporated.

A tribal telecommunications company, GRTI has offered telecommunications and now high-quality Internet access to tribal citizens living on the Gila River reservation (and beyond with subsidiaries) for more than 30 years.

The podcast covers the lessons DCI has learned along its digital equity path, including making sure people have the basic digital skills needed to build more advanced skills and confidence. Sundust also discusses how they developed a "bring your own device" program for learning, and have crafted programs that work well with tribal elders.

Finally, Sundust talks about how other Tribal telecom companies are starting to incorporate digital equity planning into their work.

This show is 14 minutes long and can be played on this page or using the podcast app of your choice with this feed.

Listen to other episodes here or see other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance here.

Thanks to Joseph McDade for the music. The song is On the Verge and is used per his Free-Use terms.

On the one hand, Cleveland is one of the worst connected cities in the nation. On the other hand, it’s also a metro region with among the highest Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) enrollment rates.

That’s because of the efforts of digital inclusion practitioners like Gina Burch, Program Coordinator at the Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center. In the second episode of our new Building for Digital Equity podcast, Gina talks about how they trained digital navigators to help enroll eligible Clevelanders into the program that provides a $30/month subsidy for low-income households to pay for home Internet service.

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As a new nationwide campaign to boost ACP enrollment is underway, Gina touches on something that is key for enrolling skeptical would-be beneficiaries: the need for trusted messengers and organizations with roots in the community to be a part of the process.

She also highlights some of the challenges they are seeing on the ground and why having high-speed Internet access, as well as the digital skills necessary to get online, is about so much more than shopping or streaming movies. Gina talks about the link between Internet access and access to health care such as making Covid vaccine appointments.

You can listen to the 14 minute interview below or it can be played using the podcast app of your choice with this feed.

Also, you can listen to other episodes here or check out our long-running Community Broadband Bits podcasts here.

The White House, in coordination with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Commerce Department, has kicked off a major push to get more of the estimated 52 million eligible households across the nation to take advantage of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

Established with the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law, the ACP provides a $30 monthly subsidy for qualified low-income households to pay for home Internet service, as well as a one-time $100 subsidy to help pay for an Internet-connected device. (Eligible households on Tribal land get a $75/month subsidy).

The FCC recently announced $66 million in grant awards to help states boost ACP enrollment, which has come to be seen as being notoriously complicated among those working in the field.

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And on Monday, the White House hosted a webinar with three national nonprofit organizations to announce the launch of an “Online for All” campaign aimed at helping more families enroll with what they called “user-friendly tools” and digital navigator support for community organizations and state governmental entities.

Call to Boost Anemic ACP enrollment

The nationwide push to get more ACP-eligible households enrolled in the program comes because, even a year after the ACP was first established, only “16 million (of 52 million) households are participating. We need to double down on that. We need your help more than ever,” one White House official told digital equity advocates and Internet service providers invited to Monday’s webinar.

Joining nearly a thousand digital inclusion practitioners, policymakers, advocates, and researchers from across the nation, ILSR’s entire Community Broadband Networks (CBN) team will be in San Antonio, Texas at the end of this month for Net Inclusion 2023.

The three-day event – organized by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) – will run from Feb. 28 to March 2 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas and is expected to draw close to 1,000 local, regional, and national leaders on the frontlines of digital equity work in the U.S.

Attendees will feast on a buffet of broadband and digital inclusion subjects and activities with everything from breakout sessions and community site tours to lightning round discussions covering the hottest and most interesting challenges digital equity advocates face in bridging the nation’s digital divide. (Don’t miss the Wednesday night event detailed below that we are hosting!)

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The NDIA-hosted event is organized to “support the local digital inclusion community there and to help practitioners nationwide learn from their leadership and ecosystem.”

You can find the schedule here.

It’s not too late to register for our first Building for Digital Equity (#B4DE) livestream event of the year. This Thursday, Feb. 16, from 2-3 pm CST/3-4 pm ET, ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative will kick off our Building for Digital Equity series.

The focus will be on two of the hottest topics in broadband right now: mapping and the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

Promising to bring more light than heat, co-host Christopher Mitchell, Community Broadband Networks Initiative Director, will be joined by co-host Kim McKinley, Chief Marketing Officer with UTOPIA Fiber – our sponsor for this year’s series. We are calling this one Building for Digital Equity: Why is Everyone Badgering the FCC?

You can register here.

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The event will give an overview of the FCC’s new broadband map and make clear what has been confusing and convoluted for those who have been working to fix the multitude of inaccuracies the map contains through the challenge process.

Our expert guests will break down the difference between fabric and location challenges and availability challenges and how those challenges may, or may not, affect how much each state will receive from the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access & Deployment (BEAD) program embedded in the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Our GIS and Data Visualization Specialist Christine Parker will review helpful mapping tools, which will be followed by a Q&A with audience members.

Save the date! ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks team is back for a second season of our Building for Digital Equity series.

You can register now here.

The free online live stream will be held on Feb. 16 from 2-3 pm CST/3-4 pm ET.

We will unpack how local communities are working with their states to challenge the FCC’s broadband maps, bringing together local stakeholders, policy advocates, and GIS and Data Visualization Specialists in one place. We will also cover local organizing for better broadband and the latest on the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

The event, which this year is being sponsored by UTOPIA Fiber, will cover:

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Mapping Tools

• What is the latest on FCC map drama? 
• What should local governments be doing around mapping? 
• What should states be doing on mapping? 

Organizing Local Digital Equity Coalitions 

• Role of Bootcamps 
• Local strategies and lessons learned 

Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) 

• What is the latest information 
• What works/doesn't work for signing people up?

The livestream will be available on Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitch, with live viewer questions answered by the panels. Stay tuned for those links here.