Unfortunately this is at the same time at the MN Broadband Task Force meeting but it looks interesting…
Digital Equity Ecosystems:
How Community Coalitions Reduce Inequality and Strengthen Democracya talk with Colin Rhinesmith, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Join us on February 18, 2026, from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET for a stimulating talk!
Use the link here to register for the Zoom webinar: https://tinyurl.com/47ukftct
The Journal of Community Informatics has released a special Issue
This special issue of the Journal of Community Informatics presents a collection of articles exploring the historical trajectory and contemporary convergence of grassroots telecommunications policy advocacy in Indian Country. The articles in the special edition posit that Tribal Digital Sovereignty (TDS) has emerged as a definitive governance framework for Tribal Nations, evolving from decades of work by scholars and practitioners at the intersection of federal Indian law, telecommunications, digital equity, and tribal self-determination. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a pivotal catalyst for this evolution, recasting broadband from a luxury to an essential lifeline and exposing deep-seated disparities in connectivity. This crisis opened an unprecedented opportunity for Tribal Nations to take a seat at the policy table and invest in infrastructure through historic federal investments through the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These investments have allowed Tribal governments to move beyond bridging the digital divide toward creating community-led solutions shaped by sovereignty and self-determination.
Despite a shifting political and funding landscape, Tribal Nations have successfully transitioned from reactive investments to proactive self-determination in the digital realm. This special issue examines TDS as an umbrella framework encompassing both Network Sovereignty—the authority over physical infrastructure—and Data Sovereignty—the governance of information and its transmission. The articles document how Tribal governments can and are actively institutionalizing long-term strategies, including the development of regulatory codes and protocols to protect governmental and other data. By tracing historical inequities alongside recent advancements, this collection highlights a foundational shift: Tribal Nations are no longer passive beneficiaries of federal policy but are the primary architects of digital futures grounded in their unique cultural, political, and legal foundations.
The issue includes the following articles. I just had to pull out one beautiful line:
If research is ceremony, then data is sacred. Indeed, data is kin.
The articles are as well written and a fascinating look at how we got to where we are..
The FCC has just released their latest report on Internet access in the US based on information from providers…
This report summarizes information about Internet access in the United States as of December 31, 2024, as collected by FCC Form 477 and the Broadband Data Collection (BDC). For purposes of this report, Internet access is defined as a service that allows information to be sent to or received from the Internet with a speed of at least 200 kilobits per second. See the Technical Notes at the end of this report for more-detailed information about these data collections and the meaning of terms used in this report.
Info on access:
Access over time:
Access by mode:
About competition:
And info on Minnesota’s data:
Georgetown University reports on Mobile Health in State Rural Health Transformation Plans…
Hundreds of rural hospitals across the country are operating on thin margins, and recent federal policy proposals threaten to exacerbate that strain. Provisions in H.R. 1 are projected to reduce federal funding to hospitals and other providers by more than $1 trillion, putting many rural facilities at risk of service reductions or closure. In an attempt to mitigate some of these challenges, H.R. 1 established the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), allocating $10 billion annually over five years to assist states in modernizing rural health care infrastructure, expanding access to care, and improving patient outcomes.
Minnesota is mentioned…
Our research indicates that mobile health models can expand access to care in rural communities by reaching populations facing geographic and broadband barriers. Mobile health care can increase preventive care, support chronic disease management, and link patients to follow-up care. For instance, a program in rural Minnesota launched a mobile-telehealth hybrid model, allowing patients to avoid 30–60 mile trips for primary care.
Patients frequently report high satisfaction with the convenience and quality of mobile health services in rural areas. Some programs are also associated with reduced emergency department use and potential system-level cost efficiencies. For example, a rural South Carolina community paramedicine program helped patients lower their blood pressure and blood glucose levels while also reducing emergency department visits.
The sustainability of mobile health programs often depends on stable funding, strong community partnerships, and referral networks that allow mobile services to act as a gateway to additional care.
Minnesota’s Minnesota Rural Health Transformation is held up as a standout…
Minnesota stands out for its integration with Tribal health organizations and its focus on dental and primary care. Mobile medical and dental units provide preventive screenings, basic primary care, restorative dental services, and lab work, while telehealth links patients to specialty care. The state also positions mobile units as extensions of FQHCs and community clinics, embedding care within existing referral networks and using community sites such as schools for service delivery and workforce training.
Minnesota’s RHTP application and press release.
They are also hosting a virtual discussion on how state policymakers can better support mobile health clinics and improve access to care at 1pm ET on February 13. Register here.
The University of Minnesota Extension has an article on AI, mobile data and boundaries…
Today, with paved roads, remote work, and a highly mobile population, she [DeeDee LeMier} explains the limited data available to rural communities often obscures the real story of how they are functioning. But new mobile data tools are beginning to change this — offering a clearer picture of how people move, work, and connect across regions.
This shift is playing out in rural Minnesota where LeMier, an Extension community development educator, has been working with Placer.ai, a location analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze anonymous mobile device data.
She talked about Wadena County as an example…
In Wadena County, community leaders asked Extension to help blur the lines between counties for an annual planning effort. The request reflected a growing recognition that people’s lives — and local economies — don’t stop at jurisdictional borders.
Ben Winchester, a rural sociologist with Extension, frames the issue as “living in the middle of everywhere,” explaining that since 2018 a majority of Minnesotans now leave their home county to work every day. “People move for regional assets surrounding quality of life rather than solely job opportunities. That is, they find a home in the middle of their desired social and economic life,” he says, challenging long-standing economic development strategies focused solely on industrial attraction.
Using Placer.ai, Extension analyzed three key dimensions of community life: resident activity, visitor patterns, and commuting behavior. The results offered insight that traditional surveys often miss. “For many small communities, especially those in rural areas, there is no detailed information available without spending huge amounts of money to do in-person surveys,” says LeMier. “By having real-time data, we can share local information with county leadership that would otherwise not be available.”
Wadena community leaders found the results immediately useful. “The most valuable insight was seeing how people actually move through, into, and out of the community — where they are coming from, how long they stay, and which destinations are most connected to Wadena,” says Hope Williams, executive director of the Economic Alliance, Wadena County’s economic development agency. “This provided a more accurate picture of regional relationships and economic activity than traditional data sources alone.”
Mobile data, for example, revealed that Wadena is a net importer of workers, meaning a larger number of employees work in the county than those who cross county lines for outside work. Nearly one-third of workers came from regional zip codes, most commonly from the Fargo, North Dakota, metropolitan area.
Williams says one of the most surprising findings was the extent to which Wadena functions as a hub for the surrounding area. “The data showed stronger and more frequent connections with neighboring communities than expected,” she says, “reinforcing the idea that Wadena plays a regional role in services, employment, and daily travel.”
Brookings Institute talks about research that looks at workers’ ability to adapt if job loss does occur…
In short, the new analysis asks: If AI does cause job displacement, who is best positioned to adapt, and who will struggle most? In asking those questions, this analysis intends to help policymakers focused on AI’s labor market impacts better target their attention and resources.
I thought this might be of interest to policymakers, anyone with workforce development and anyone with a job…
Overall, this analysis offers a more nuanced picture of AI’s possible impacts on workers than AI exposure measures can on their own.
Specifically, the analysis focuses on understanding the degree to which workers in different highly exposed occupations could manage a job transition after involuntary displacement. In doing so, it makes clear the existence of both large zones of strong resilience to job loss across the workforce as well as concentrated pockets of heightened vulnerability if displacement were to occur.
Given this, the report likely has practical use for workforce and employment development practitioners because understanding where workers are most and least resilient to AI-driven labor market change may help inform the optimal use of public funding for workforce adjustment programs.
The research is interesting and can be highlighted in the graphics below…
Visit the article for access to the interactive maps of communities with the largest share of jobs in high vulnerability occupations.
There is a new, free tool called BroadbandClusters that you can use to get information about your community (county, city, zip code) if your county is part of a MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area). If you are you can access the following information:
You can get data from the following counties (as well as cities and zip codes within these counties):
And here are screenshots of the info:
For the 1 in 10 people in the United States who don’t own a computer, accessing government services has become increasingly difficult. As services move increasingly online, residents without a computer and reliable internet service are locked out of essential systems. Tasks that were once handled in person now assume access to digital tools that many individuals simply do not have.
Federal policy is accelerating this shift. The 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA) and recent guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) direct agencies to establish a “digital-first public experience.” Agencies are required to digitize services and forms, expand the use of electronic signatures, and maximize self-service transactions.
At the same time, the federal government is also transitioning exclusively to electronic payments, ending the issuance of paper checks. The IRS states that electronic direct deposit is the fastest and safest way for individuals to receive a tax refund, and that the agency is phasing out paper checks for taxpayers. This shift makes digital access to an online bank account a necessity to receive and view payments.
The article goes on to give examples of times when an email address or access to a computer is required. Examples include Veterans and Essential Services Move Online and Education and Public Access Challenges.
The Office of Broadband Development and MN Broadband Task Force unveiled the 2025 MN Broadband Task Force Annual Report at the Task Force meeting today. It includes a concise description of progress toward the statutory speed goals…
Minnesota has made measurable strides: as of 2025, 93.84% of homes and businesses have access to broadband at 25/3 Mbps, and 92.11% can reach speeds of 100/20 Mbps. Yet, more than 121,000 households remain without basic service, and nearly 155,000 are underserved at higher speeds.
The report also outlines recommendations to policymakers…
Key Recommendations for Governor and Legislature
Affordability, Economic Opportunity, and Workforce Development
• Modernize Federal Affordability Programs – Advocate for federal reforms to the Lifeline program, increasing the monthly subsidy to match the former ACP levels ($30 for most households, $75 for Tribal lands). This would make broadband service genuinely affordable for low-income Minnesotans and help prevent service cancellations due to cost.
• Workforce Development and Local Hiring – Develop and fund Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs and registered apprenticeships with Minnesota schools and colleges to address labor shortages and build local capacity for broadband deployment. Encourage grant recipients to implement workforce best practices (outlined in Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 116J.395) and prioritize local hiring provisions, ensuring jobs created are family-supporting with fair wages and benefits.• Support for Anchor Institutions – Prioritize funding for anchor institutions (libraries, schools, community centers) to provide digital literacy training, including resources for software, hardware, staff (such as digital navigators), outreach, and business alignment with these initiatives.
• Statewide Digital Inclusion Initiative – Launch a coordinated, multi-faceted initiative to systematically eliminate barriers to digital literacy and adoption. This includes expanding affordable broadband access, providing devices, and funding community-based programs that address non-technical challenges, such as transportation, childcare, language barriers, and trust-building with service providers. The initiative should prioritize digital skills training for all residents, regardless of foundational literacy level.
Mapping, Policy, and Funding
• Advance Inclusive Broadband Deployment – Align deployment strategies with community needs, prioritizing underserved and unserved populations. Strengthen state-supported coordination of community and nonprofit efforts and explore cost-reduction policies to lower barriers in high-cost, low-density areas.
• Expand and Sustain Broadband Mapping – Continue and expand mapping efforts to provide accurate, transparent data that informs policy decisions, identifies service gaps, and supports targeted infrastructure development. As BEAD and other grant programs are completed, ensure mapping efforts evaluate actual locations served, speeds delivered, and infrastructure capabilities.
• Prioritize Funding for Line Extension Connection Program – Provide continued and increased funding for the Line Extension Connection Program, which has proven to be a cost-effective and targeted solution for last-mile deployment. This program empowers consumers, meets demand, and ensures no household or business is left behind as BEAD funding rolls out.
Pew Research recently posted a lot of facts about broadband, smartphones and the digital divide. I thought the following would be of interesting to readers…
Over the years, some of the biggest and most consistent divides in home internet access have been by household income. That remains true today.
Americans in households making under $30,000 a year are far less likely than those with higher incomes to subscribe to home broadband. In this lowest-income group, 54% do, compared with 94% of those in the highest-income households – a 40 percentage point gap.
When it comes to the communities people live in, urban and rural Americans subscribe to home broadband at similar rates. But both groups are less likely than suburban adults to do so.
Black and Hispanic adults are also less likely than White or Asian adults to subscribe to broadband.
Changes over time
Overall, the share of Americans who subscribe to broadband has held fairly steady in the past few years. That’s also true for many demographic groups.
But between 2023 and now, it dipped slightly among young adults and Hispanic adults:
- 71% of those ages 18 to 29 now subscribe to broadband at home, down from 78% in 2023.
- 68% of Hispanic adults do, down from 75% in 2023.
For more on how these shares have changed over the past two decades, read our fact sheet on internet and broadband use.
Finding a mental health provider in rural areas is hard but Minnesota researchers said it is much harder for communities of color in small towns and a new report laid out specific obstacles to care and solutions showing hope.
The Center for Rural Policy and Development said rural communities across the state are becoming more diverse but the center’s latest report showed there is still little awareness about the mental health needs of people of color in these areas. Lack of insurance, stigma, and trust issues are factors complicating the issue.
Marnie Werner, vice president of research and operations at the center, said refugee and immigrant populations also tend to be isolated from their small-town neighbors.
The article offers some solutions…
Recommendations in the report include identifying mentors who can work with students of color, in hopes they will eventually take on mental health care roles in their communities or become school social workers. The report also cited a move by the state Legislature last year to adopt licensure reforms. Backers said it could open more career pathways in the mental health field.
The report talks more about telehealth…
Telehealth can especially help rural people of color access appropriate, effective mental healthcare, says Terica Toliver, Senior Director of Clinical Therapy at Louisiana-based Iris Telehealth, which provides therapy via telehealth through her contract with ElevaCare in Southwest Minnesota. Telehealth gives people of color a broader range of providers to choose from, including providers who share the same racial and cultural backgrounds.
It’s not a perfect solution, however. Hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans don’t have access to the broadband internet service required for telehealth to work reliably,[26] and telehealth isn’t for everyone. Some patients simply don’t feel comfortable talking to a stranger about their mental health on a digital screen.
I can only access the abstract for this report – but sometimes the abstract can get you the info you need. (Not that I wouldn’t like to read the full article.) The research article (Can affordable internet increase employment opportunities for low-income workers? Evidence from the Affordable Connectivity Program) looks at the impact of the ACP…
This study investigates the labor market impacts of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), the largest U.S. initiative to date aimed at reducing income-based disparities in Internet access. We assess ACP’s effects on labor force participation and employment and test the hypothesis that a key impact mechanism is the expansion of remote work opportunities for program recipients. Using large-scale national datasets, we also explore heterogeneity in program effects by gender, occupation, and connection type (fixed vs. mobile).
They found that…
The results provide robust evidence that ACP participation is associated with improved labor market outcomes, particularly among women and individuals with high-speed residential connections. These gains appear to be driven, in part, by increases in both the incidence and intensity of remote work. The findings suggest that a narrow focus on first-level adoption outcomes underestimates the broader socioeconomic benefits of affordable broadband initiatives. Theoretically, they indicate that the so-called Matthew effect – whereby digitization amplifies existing social inequalities – is not inevitable and can be partially offset by well-designed, targeted policy interventions.
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society looks at leveling off of broadband adoption in the last few years (The End of Progress: New Data Raises the Alarm that No Progress May Be the New Normal for the Digital Divide)…
The 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) shows essentially no change in wireline broadband adoption between 2023 and 2024 and just a 1-point increase in the share of households with broadband of any type. The primary growth in broadband adoption of any type occurred among households with subscriptions to cellular data plans for smartphones. The figure below shows the data.
The author (John Horrigan) calls this a consequence of an income constrained saturation point and explains why this is a societal issue…
The consequences of this income constrained saturation point becoming an enduring condition are important. Key services in our society are increasingly optimized in a way that assumes people have both mobile and fixed-access subscriptions. Think about healthcare services. They are increasingly designed such that online tools contain test results, post-intervention care instructions, and wellness information as well as a platform for telehealth sessions. A fixed (i.e., wireline) connection at home (with a sufficiently large video display) facilitates video interactions with healthcare providers. For check-ins, co-pays, and reminders, many systems are designed with mobile access at the forefront. Educational or job training applications function best with large displays on fixed connections, while mobile access supplements with scheduling and other resources. With generous (or unlimited) monthly data allotments, fixed subscription plans give users latitude to benefit from such applications that mobile plans alone do not allow.
He offers some policy solutions…
This leaves policy intervention as an option to reverse the tide. The return of a program such as the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is an obvious tool, as it proved effective in bringing millions of households online and maintaining connections for millions more low-income homes.8 The chances of ACP’s revival do not seem good at the moment. But it is worth noting that all the current promises of the digital revolution—productivity enhanced by artificial intelligence, improvements in health care delivery and outcomes—are premised on widespread and robust connectivity among all citizens. The current data on broadband adoption indicate that this connectivity will not likely happen due to market forces alone.
Here’s good information (or reminder) about smartphone use from the Washington Post, as summarized by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society…
For many of us, checking our phones has probably become an unconscious reflex, similar to breathing or blinking. Glancing at your phone can begin to compromise your cognitive skills once it passes a certain threshold. Studies from Nottingham Trent University in the U.K. and Keimyung University in South Korea found that checking your phone about 110 times a day may signal high risk or problematic use. Over eight years of research involving teenagers and millennials, Larry Rosen, a professor emeritus of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, observed that participants checked or unlocked their smartphones between 50 and more than 100 times per day, on average every 10 to 20 minutes while awake. “The phones and digital media are reinforcing for our brains, activating the same reward pathway as drugs and alcohol. The phones create a compulsive habit loop where we check without thinking and experience withdrawal when we don’t check or don’t have access to our phone,” said Anna Lembke, a professor of psychiatry and addiction medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.
I’m bringing back an old tradition – looking at how much money broadband can save a household right before the holidays set in. I’m bringing back the old tradition with a new spin, I’m using ChatGPT. Something old; something new.
I started with a search on [how much money does a household with broadband save or earn?].
It pulled up some good articles, but they were dated. I will let my age (or Master’s degree in Library and Information Science) show when I admit that I want links to article, not cite-less answers. But I moved forward asking for updated information. Below are the results:
Turns out that much of what I found interesting was from the same research: Economic Benefits of Fiber Deployment, a report prepared for Fiber Broadband Association and Frontier Communications from Nov 2024. The focus is on fiber over all other broadband modes – but was the best I could find in terms of specific saving and earning numbers.
Here’s the quick description of part of the research…
Our study is the first to show that fiber deployment has significant incremental economic benefits even in the presence of other high-speed broadband technologies.
The report looks at broadband savings/earning from the household and national perspective. I thought I’d pull out the details by household.
Related to real estate:
Earning:
Community Employment: