{"id":385271,"date":"2020-12-02T21:58:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-03T05:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcuser&p=385271"},"modified":"2021-09-02T08:39:24","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T15:39:24","slug":"digital-divide","status":"publish","type":"arcuser","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/digital-divide","title":{"rendered":"Closing the Digital Divide in the World of COVID-19"},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[24962,121242],"tags":[342892,338502,405742],"arcuser_issues":[472351],"class_list":["post-385271","arcuser","type-arcuser","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focus","category-telecommunications","tag-digital-divide","tag-public-utilities","tag-social-equity","arcuser_issues-arcuser-fall-2020"],"acf":{"short_description":"Since 2001, Connected Nation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization has been working to bridge the digital divide.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"pdf","file":385291},{"acf_fc_layout":"blockquote","content":"Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans who now work and school their children at home and online have found that they are more dependent than ever on access to broadband connectivity. This situation has made the technology gap experienced by low-income populations and uneven access to broadband even more pressing issues. Since 2001, Connected Nation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization has been working to bridge this digital divide."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, Connected Nation had been working to find innovative solutions for connecting all Americans to high-speed internet and related technologies.\r\n\r\nThis includes developing and providing tools, resources, and methods to help local communities, states, and federal agencies create and implement solutions to address their broadband and digital technology gaps. Through broadband mapping, community engagement, digital literacy, job placement, education assessments, and telehealth research and development, Connected Nation assesses and plans for the expansion of broadband access, adoption, and use.\r\nWhen response to the pandemic began shutting things down, all aspects of life became even more tied to broadband. People found they couldn\u2019t work from home"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":385311,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"if their broadband connection was not fast enough. Students who lack a high-speed internet connection and a device of their own couldn\u2019t keep up with connected classmates. Quarantined persons without broadband connectivity couldn\u2019t stay at home if they couldn\u2019t order food, household items, and medications online.\r\n\r\nThis situation compelled leaders at all levels to seek ways to improve broadband connectivity for residents and businesses immediately. Now, people are paying significantly more attention to the areas of the country that are underserved (i.e., have internet access, but at subpar speeds) or unserved (i.e., lack any internet access). Unfortunately, increased attention to these issues has not led to an immediate resolution of these problems for most people.\r\n\r\nGIS and location intelligence can provide key information for fashioning new solutions. It can be leveraged to identify unserved and underserved locations, map broadband service areas, evaluate broadband assets and infrastructure, and provide data visualization applications to policy makers and grant-making agencies that can help enable funding for areas that need the most help getting connected.\r\n\r\n "},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":385321,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Using GIS to Understand Broadband Access<\/h3>\r\nBetter and more accurate broadband mapping helps policy makers, city planners, politicians, providers, and others understand where and how to reach families, businesses, farmers, and others who are unserved or underserved by current broadband connections.\r\n\r\nAlthough there is a federal broadband dataset that is available from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), known as Form 477, there are several known issues with the data completeness, format, and quality. Not all broadband providers submit broadband service data as required. In addition, not all providers have GIS capabilities or resources to ensure the accuracy of the filings.\r\n\r\nFixed broadband data is filed only as a comma-separated values (.csv) file, which leads to issues when providers aren\u2019t able to visualize and confirm the areas being submitted. Fixed wireless services are filed as census block lists instead of propagation models. Also, there is inherent overstatement with data that uses census blocks as the unit of measure when broadband networks are independent of these boundaries. Provider-submitted data is not thoroughly validated to confirm its accuracy.\r\n\r\nWhile the FCC is currently working to implement the Broadband DATA Act passed by Congress on March 23, 2020, to implement a new mapping program, all these issues pertaining to the current federal broadband datasets make them inadequate for the identification of unserved\/underserved areas and the local planning efforts that can make a difference to disconnected Americans.\r\n\r\nTo facilitate more detailed and accurate broadband mapping, Connected Nation carries out four primary tasks:\r\n\r\nIt works directly with broadband providers to understand their networks, service areas, technologies used, and speeds available by collecting information and mapping networks. Because some providers do not have GIS resources data on their broadband service areas, this data cannot be provided in a geospatial format. Connected Nation bridges this resource gap. With participation and feedback from broadband providers, Connected Nation produces those files.\r\n