On January 11, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau released a new report titled “Strategies and Recommendations for Promoting Digital Inclusion.” As the introduction explains,
With this plan, several of the following goals laid out in the 2016 Lifeline Modernization Order are or can be realized. First, this plan marks another step in the Commission’s efforts to better understand non-price barriers to digital inclusion and to facilitate existing and forthcoming efforts addressing them…Second, this plan explores how the Bureau can engage consumer groups, community groups, philanthropic organizations, local governments, and corporations to increase broadband adoption and digital literacy among those who remain offline…Finally, we suggest policy innovations that make the broadband marketplace more transparent and affordable for low-income households and more amendable to promoting digital inclusion in addition to broadband access and adoption.
I am honored to have played a small role in helping to inform the FCC’s final report and recommendations with many thanks to the Benton Foundation, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, as well as the many community-based organizations, individuals, and families across the country who I had the privilege to visit with during my research in 2015.
