Initial funding for digital equity plans is available. But how do states plan to use it?

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced late last month that applications are open to states, territories and tribal lands looking to advance their digital equity plans.

NTIA recently finished approving digital equity plans for all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., in what Administrator Alan Davidson called a “milestone moment.” 

The grants announced in the March 29 notice of funding opportunity can be used to begin implementation of those plans, which identify the barriers in each state to accessing and using digital resources and establish measurable objectives for promoting access and use of broadband technology.

In addition, the notice establishes a process to make funds available from the Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program to native entities to carry out their own digital inclusion work.

An initial $811 million out of $1.4 billion will be available under the program, which is part of President Joe Biden’s “Internet for All'' initiative. The bulk of that funding, around $760 million, will go to the states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., to advance their digital equity plans. The remaining funds will be available to native entities and other territories.

Based on a Route Fifty analysis of the digital equity plans submitted to NTIA, states are broadly facing the same challenges in getting their residents online.

The biggest of those is ensuring that broadband internet is affordable. Many states, including Kansas, Maine and Nevada, had planned to rely on the federal Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP, which provides low-income households with a $30-a-month subsidy to pay for internet access.

Finding that the program was “known to be chronically undersubscribed” in the state, Georgia’s digital equity plan had intended to promote it. Only about 38% of eligible households are currently enrolled. In Kansas, only 26% of eligible households are enrolled. Like Georgia, their plan similarly looks to promote the ACP. “While it’s a great start, there is much more work to do,” the Kansas report says.

But, unless Congress acts, the program is set to run out of money at the end of the month. Despite furious lobbying from state and local officials, an extension was not included in the final six appropriations bills recently approved by Congress.

In addition to making broadband affordable, states said another challenge is that many residents lack the digital skills to take full advantage of the technology, and as a result, are prevented from making “meaningful use” of the internet.

For example, Alabama’s digital equity plan found that many people can be “functionally limited by their inability to navigate the internet effectively.” But the problem goes deeper as the state found that 9% of residents without home internet “cite a lack of need or interest” as a reason for not being connected, while 30% said an internet connection is “not worth the cost.” The report said those findings suggest that some residents “do not understand the value of having fluency in various digital skills.”

Digital skills run the gamut from being able to open a device and send an email, to browsing safely and being mindful of cybersecurity and privacy best practices.

Connecticut made a similar discovery as Alabama. Citing a lack of digital skills as a possible barrier, state officials shared a quote in its plan from a transcript of a digital equity focus group meeting run by the University of Connecticut’s School of Public Policy where someone said, “Afraid of technology? Yes.”

Not being able to access broadband at all is a big challenge reported in states’ digital equity plans.

Illinois, for example, found that 2.9 million residents do not have home access to high-speed internet, and compounding matters, struggle to find it. Local initiatives like libraries loaning out mobile hotspots are often oversubscribed. 

Kentucky found that the percentage of households with a fixed internet subscription “varies widely,” with adoption rates above 80% in two counties but less than 20% in a more rural area.

State residents also typically lack devices that can access the internet. Maryland’s digital equity plan found that while the state outperforms the nation on desktop or laptop computer ownership, low-income households are “in the most urgent need” of access. 

Meanwhile, Hawaii found that while smartphones are “increasingly ubiquitous across generations, geographies, ethnicities and socioeconomic strata,” computer ownership is “less common.” That can be due to the upfront cost of a computer being higher than a smartphone.

It is not just a lack of access to devices that causes some to struggle, however, but access to the right devices. “Not all devices are created equally, and some devices don’t enable meaningful participation,” Arizona’s digital equity plan says. The state reported that cellphone access (68%) outpaces use of a personal computer (53%) or tablet (38%).

States have proposed various solutions for these challenges, and hope to receive NTIA grant funding under the Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program to begin implementing them.

Idaho, for example, pledged to increase participation in broadband affordability programs, including ACP, in a bid to drive costs down. The state promised to better advertise those programs, including in different languages, and encourage internet service providers to promote them, with a five-year goal of half of Idahoans having heard of ACP or other related programs.

Several states are considering similar strategies on affordability. Mississippi said one approach to help bring down costs is to ensure all ISPs offer a low-cost plan for households that qualify for the ACP.

If the program is not funded by Congress by the end of the month, though, it is unclear what this will mean for the digital equity plans that rely so heavily on the program to address affordability issues in their states.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts said it intends to develop what it calls a “statewide digital navigator corps” to support organizations that hire people to provide local support with “technology troubleshooting, education, program access and more.” Florida said it would expand its online privacy and cybersecurity courses, and increase multilingual programming, among other initiatives.

For building out infrastructure, Montana pledged to potentially replicate Vermont’s Registered Apprenticeship Program, which helps to upskill some residents into jobs as technicians who can install the necessary equipment. That effort will support Montana’s “broader goals of improving internet availability and keeping jobs in the state,” the report said.

Colorado proposed creating a “sustainable device ecosystem” to make more devices available, including developing refurbishing centers and incentives for people to donate devices to be refurbished.

Grant applications for the 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico are due by May 28.