It’s clear that federal funding for digital inclusion activities is dead. NTIA and the Administration killed the funding for the Digital Equity Act, and it’s looking increasingly certain that NTIA is going to kill most or all of the BEAD non-deployment funds. These two sources of funding were going to be used to get a lot of computers and devices into the hands of people who need them and train millions of people to better use broadband.

Both of these efforts were going to benefit ISPs in a big way. Numerous studies have shown that once people buy a broadband subscription, they work hard to keep it. Broadband subscriptions are anti-recessionary, and people will ditch other expenses in their life, before cancelling a broadband subscription.

I think it’s in the best interest of ISPs to step into the federal funding void to help tackle this issue. Very few ISPs have attempted to tackle the issue, but one tackled it in a big way. Comcast Internet Essentials provides a monthly broadband connection that includes WiFi for qualifying low-income households for as little as $14.95 per month, with no extra fees for equipment or activation. Participants get access to computer training, either online or in person. Participants can buy a computer for $149.99. The company says it has helped 10 million homes with the program and has a goal to help up to 50 million homes by the end of 2027.

Setting aside the low price issue, the Comcast Internet Essentials program is addressing two of the keys to digital inclusion – getting devices in the hands of people who need them and showing people how to use broadband. I have no idea how Comcast handles these two issues. I have to assume, at their scale, they’ve arranged to buy a lot of basic computers for a low price. If I had to guess, I would think that Comcast outsources the training to a vendor. Comcast can pull this off due to the size of the Internet Essential program – there is a lot of economy of scale in helping 10 million homes. Smaller ISPs are not going to easily be able to duplicate what Comcast has done. But that doesn’t mean that small ISPs can’t make a difference in their markets.

One way for an ISP to participate in the digital inclusion effort is to somehow partner with the local folks who are already tackling the issue. There are folks in most parts of the country already tackling these issues. It might be a library, a non-profit, or a local government agency. In my part of the world, the leader in this effort is the Land of Sky COG, a state-sanctioned group of local governments that work together to tackle local problems.

Providing funding and technical assistance to your local digital inclusion groups can help them pursue their mission of helping people join the digital world. I can think of multiple ways for ISPs and digital inclusion folks to partner that range from ISPs providing funding to ISPs, to wading in and providing hands-on assistance with training or refurbishing computers. The same advice applied to the digital inclusion folks who were counting on federal and state grant funding need to regroup to stay viable. You should be knocking on the doors of local ISPs to let them know what you are doing and explain how what you do helps them.

There has been talk for the last twenty years about solving the digital divide. The way to do this has been understood from the beginning – get people connected, make sure people have computers, and make sure they know how to use them. While some folks started to tackle these issues years ago, the topic got national and local attention with the promise of federal grant funding. It’s in the interest of ISPs and digital inclusion folks to work together to find a way to keep this effort moving forward. It’s good for communities, good for ISPs, and it’s the right thing to do.