Posted inBusiness, News

The $30 broadband credit little used in Colorado takes effort from low-income users. Here’s how to qualify. 

A visit to Denver by a Federal Communications Commissioner this month to promote a little-used broadband discount left some households even more confused about how to actually benefit. The Affordable Connectivity Program, which offers low-income households $30 to $75 a month to offset internet costs, has been claimed by about 27% of eligible users nationwide […]

Posted inNews

FCC visits Denver to tout free internet subsidy that 80% of eligible Coloradans are ignoring

About 80% of Colorado households eligible for $30 to $75 a month to pay for internet service don’t seem to want the free benefit.  Or perhaps, they just don’t know about it. That’s why Geoffrey Starks, a commissioner with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, dropped by A.B. Hirschfeld Towers in Denver on Wednesday. He wanted […]

Posted inBusiness, Economy, News, Politics and Government, Technology

Hundreds of thousands of Coloradans qualify for a $50 broadband internet credit. So why aren’t they seizing it?

A $50 credit on monthly internet service could mean the difference between having broadband and not having internet at all. But from the looks of federal data, there hasn’t been much interest in claiming the money made available by the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. The program launched in May and provides low-income consumers up to […]

Posted inBusiness, Economy, News, Politics and Government, Technology

Colorado reaches 91% rural broadband coverage as efforts to improve internet for Ute Tribes move forward

One look at Colorado’s official broadband map and Bernadette Cuthair will tell you it’s wrong. As the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s director of planning & development, Cuthair has been working to help her community access faster internet service. But the current broadband map makes it seem like the southwestern town of Towaoc, the base for […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: As county commissioners, we see smart ways to close Colorado’s digital divide

Colorado’s digital divide spans both rural and urban areas of our state, but it’s two different divides and two different challenges.  The Rural Divide is primarily an infrastructure problem: At least 100,000 Coloradans don’t have connectivity to high-speed broadband networks.  In urban areas, it’s an Adoption Divide – world-class networks are available almost everywhere, but […]

Posted inBusiness, News, Technology

Can companies like SpaceX finally bring broadband to thousands of rural Coloradans?

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is coming to Colorado. Sort of. The California aerospace firm was among the winners in the $9.2 billion federal broadband auction aimed at ending the digital divide in rural America.  SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies Corp., received a $39.7 million piece of Colorado’s allotment to serve more than 19,000 households or […]

Posted inBusiness, News, Technology

Subsidized broadband program speeds up, but Colorado customers must upgrade to keep discount

A national low-income broadband program will get a speed boost on Tuesday as new federal requirements go into effect for the Lifeline service. But not all Lifeline customers will automatically see the upgrade to 25 megabits per second from 20 mbps for fixed broadband service, or an increase to 11.75 gigabytes of data for wireless […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: Facebook shouldn’t block a journalist tool revealing how political ads are targeted

Many elements went into John Hickenlooper’s winning campaign for U.S. Senate this year, but an important aspect was his political advertising on Facebook. Not only did Hickenlooper outspend incumbent Sen. Cory Gardner on Facebook ads in the months leading up to Election Day by a ratio of $5 to $1, but he also deployed sophisticated […]