CN’s National Policy Director Outlines the Best Practices for Closing Broadband Adoption Gaps

On Monday, Philip Brown, Connected Nation’s national policy director, was part of a roundtable session, “Increasing Demand: Best Practices for Closing the Broadband Adoption Gap,” during the TPS: Broadband Innovation conference in San Mateo, Calif.

“Connected Nation was a sponsor of the Tech Policy Summit this year and was honored to share our insight into the ways Connected Nation and its programs have successfully and dramatically helped to increase broadband adoption rates. Our in-depth research, local grassroots approach to demand creation, and Computers 4 Kids program were all highlighted, along with the work of OneEconomy and The Children’s Partnership, as effective tactics for increasing sustainable broadband adoption, particularly among at-risk populations,” he said.

The roundtable also featured Alan Greenlee of One Economy, Elaine Carpenter of The Children’s Partnership and Gary Bolles of Xigi, with Professor Allen Hammond of the BroadBand Institute of California serving as moderator.

The TPS: Broadband Innovation conference was held prior to the third annual Tech Policy Summit, held this week, May 11-13.

What others are saying:

“[Minnesota] selected Connected Nation as a result of the company’s innovative model that works on behalf of the State to develop high quality and verifiable products. Further, the State of Minnesota decided that Connected Nation’s approach to mapping, based on voluntary collaboration with the provider community, is the most expedient and effective way to produce this important policy tool…Connected Nation and Connect Minnesota have been excellent partners for Minnesota. As you develop a plan for mapping broadband availability across the United States, we invite and encourage you to look closely at Minnesota’s broadband mapping process. We believe you will find an excellent model for mapping broadband availability in such a way that is transparent, verifiable, continuously updated, and perhaps most importantly, practical and valuable for identifying those unserved and underserved areas of Minnesota.”

--Diane Wells, manager of the state’s telecommunication division in the Minnesota Department of Commerce, describing the powerful impact of the work done by Connected Nation’s Connect Minnesota initiative in a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration