Mastodon (Tusky), Signal, Matrix and E-Mail work fine in low bandwidth situations. The web is unusable.

Spring is the perfect time to clear out your pile of old electronics. Free Geek Twin Cities could take them off your hands while helping the community. #MNastodon #Minneapolis #TwinCities #RetroComputing #RetroTech #DigitalDivide https://twincitiesgeek.com/2025/04/free-geek-twin-cities-is-reducing-waste-and-bringing-tech-to-communities-in-need/

https://www.europesays.com/uk/10216/ COVID Internet Connectivity Crisis Has Eased For Most Families, But Risks Remain – The 74 #Cleveland #detroit #DigitalDivide #Internet #News #Pandemic #Technology #UK #UnitedKingdom

"In sum, while BEAD was not as ambitious as a Green New Deal–style program, which would enlist an entirely public and unionized workforce, it was better than a garden-variety neoliberal public-private partnership with zero regard for labor standards.

Fiber-optic systems handle growing bandwidth demands through equipment upgrades, which require long-term maintenance crews — meaning stable employment and durable internet for these communities for decades to come. Instead of this promising vision, rural Americans now face the prospect of receiving inferior internet service while the potential for sustainable union employment evaporates in favor of satellite technology that requires minimal ongoing workforce investment in their communities.

By the time Biden left office, his administration had just finished approving state proposals, setting the stage for implementation. So long, BEAD. We hardly knew ye.

The promise of laying fiber-optic cable was that it would require workers on the ground everywhere, creating jobs throughout rural America. By contrast, Starlink satellites are made in two locations in Washington and Texas, launched from Cape Canaveral, and managed remotely from SpaceX headquarters — bypassing any meaningful job creation in the communities that stood most to benefit."

https://jacobin.com/2025/03/musk-starlink-rural-internet-jobs

Super proud of the work that the team at ODLAN has accomplished this year. Combatting online hate and building tools for inclusive digital participation for Canadian 2SLGBTQIA+ communities are absolutely critical in 2025's digital landscape.

Last year, we expanded digital safety training, bridged the tech gap, and supported 2SLGBTQIA+ communities online.

See our impact at https://odlan.ca/annual-reports
Together, we’re making digital spaces safer & more inclusive!

I have been trying to compile #OsmAnd for Android from the source since yesterday. And I am trying to do this over mobile Internet which isn't going to provide stable speed. The repos are huge that even doing a shallow clone results around 1 GB in size.

Access to stable Internet with unlimited bandwidth is a big barrier for #FOSS contribution. In a country like #India many survive over limited Internet with unstable bandwidth. This #DigitalDivide has to be bridged through public investment.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick aims to revamp Biden’s $42B broadband grant program with a 'tech-neutral approach,' potentially benefiting SpaceX’s Starlink. #Broadband #TechNews #SpaceX #Starlink #DigitalDivide #Biden #TechPolicy #Connectivity

"'It's a very difficult problem to communicate to the general public. It's not like an oil spill, where the pelicans are dying. It's not visceral. There's debris you can show them through a telescope. But it's just a dot.'"

https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/features/the-triumphs-and-troubles-of-the-7000-starlink-satellites-crowding-our-night-skies/

The digital divide in action in an Australian country town -- I went to the pop- up market early this morning for some fresh fruit and veg. The person before me paid with her watch. I paid cash. Actually cash I have had in my wallet since before covid, I mostly buy online. The market is a new thing, my only weekly outing.

The incredible @saera at @everythingopen talks about the challenges her rurally-residing parents in a bushfire-prone area have faced in telecoms - especially the cutting of copper lines, 3G deactivation and so on - and emphasises how much has been moved online after COVID such as telehealth - and how the lack of internet is causing a #DigitalDivide

"Last week, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the FCC, rejecting its authority to classify broadband as a Title II “telecommunications service.” In doing so, the court removed net neutrality protections for all Americans and took away the FCC’s ability to meaningfully regulate internet service providers.

This ruling fundamentally gets wrong the reality of internet service we all live with every day. Nearly 80% of Americans view broadband access to be as important as water and electricity. It is no longer an extra, non-necessary “information service,” as it was seen 40 years ago, but it is a vital medium of communication in everyday life. Business, health services, education, entertainment, our social lives, and more have increasingly moved online. By ruling that broadband “information service” and not a “telecommunications service” this court is saying that the ISPs that control your broadband access will continue to face little to no oversight for their actions.

This is intolerable."

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/01/sixth-circuit-rules-against-net-neutrality-eff-will-continue-fight

Want to meet in person? I’ll be speaking at the ITA Showcase in Portland, Oregon in March.
From the website: “ITA Showcase is an annual trade show sponsored by the associate members of the Washington Independent Telephone Association (WITA) and the Oregon Telecommunications Association (OTA), for the benefit of the members of those associations in the Pacific Northwest.”

“Bob, what will your presentation be about?”
Cybersecurity in telecom, of course!

Don’t delay – register soon.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/angela-church-0583a55_dont-miss-out-on-ita-showcase-2025-take-activity-7283135215621812225-xWsQ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks

"Now, the rate of new mobile internet subscriber growth is slowing. From 2015 to 2021, the survey consistently found over 200 million coming online through mobile devices around the world each year. But in the last two years, that number has dropped to 160 million. Rest of World analysis of that data found that a number of developing countries are plateauing in the number of mobile internet subscribers. That suggests that in countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Mexico, the easiest populations to get online have already logged on, and getting the rest of the population on mobile internet will continue to be a challenge. GSMA collects data by surveying a nationally representative sample of people in each country, and then it correlates the results with similar studies.

Max Cuvellier Giacomelli, the head of the Mobile for Development program at GSMA, said that large swaths of the world’s population still don’t have access to mobile internet primarily because of affordability. Although the cost of data has dropped radically in recent years, the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency focused on information and communications technologies, notes that huge disparities between regions persist. The cost of data in Africa, for example, is more than twice that of the Americas, the second most expensive region."

https://restofworld.org/2024/mobile-internet-users-growth-rate/

California's work to crack the #digitaldivide and provide #broadband for all isn't finished until tenant choice is protected under law. #InternetChoice https://media-alliance.org/2024/12/does-broadband-for-all-apply-to-californias-tenants-it-should/

The Othernet project, aimed at providing free access to vital information globally, is sadly coming to an end. This innovative initiative has strived to connect underserved communities through satellite technology, but it will soon be discontinued. Learn more about its journey here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othernet #Othernet #SatelliteInternet #TechForGood #DigitalDivide

On the 29th November 2024 at our QUT Energy Transition Centre symposium on the Summit of the Future, Viviana Munoz Tellez of the South Centre, Geneva spoke about the Global Digital Compact https://youtu.be/354UOirTIkI?si=1DBQ1pT99t03ETrI #globaldigitalcompact #southcentre #SDGs #summitofthefuture #digitaldivide

Aperte le iscrizioni all'evento annuale di #YouthIGF Italy!

L'evento sull'#Internet Governance PER giovani e CON i giovani in #Italia!

Il 30 novembre alle 10.45 collegati anche tu per le sessioni organizzate da under 35 e i contributi da parte di personalità di rilievo dell'Internet Governance italiana e globale. Discuteremo di #AI #educazione #DigitalDivide, #disinformazione, #sovranità digitale, #softwarelibero, #foss

Il tutto con #BigBlueButton!

https://www.eventbrite.it/e/biglietti-youth-igf-italy-2024-1080411924149?aff=oddtdtcreator

In an odd twist, it would seem troops from #NorthKorea are enjoying #porn
in #Russia.

It's the 1990s for them. Only with less grainy videos, I suspect.

This is fodder for some off the books #digitaldivide discussions.

https://www.newsweek.com/north-korean-troops-russia-ukraine-war-gorging-pornography-1981960