Broadband’s ability to expand educational and employment opportunities is especially meaningful for Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing, a community that faces unique challenges in education and that suffers from a rate of unemployment much higher than the national average. Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc. (CSD) intends to expand broadband adoption among people who are deaf and hard of hearing and provide them with online tools to more fully participate in the digital economy. The project proposes to employ a combination of discounted broadband service and specialized computers, technology training from an online state-of-the art support center customized to the community’s needs, public access to videophones at anchor institutions from coast to coast, and a nationwide outreach initiative. Thousands will gain online access to all the Internet has to offer, including sign language interpreters, captioned video services, and other content and functionalities designed especially to advance their educational, employment, and healthcare interests.

Building a Sustainable Middle-Mile Network for Underserved Rural North Carolina proposes to build a 494-mile, middle-mile broadband network serving almost one half the population of North Carolina in 37 counties. The new fiber network proposes to increase the existing bandwidth by 10 to 20 times in underserved areas and will connect to 685 miles of existing infrastructure in the urbanized central region of the state, expanding the reach of the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCERN). Currently, NCREN provides backbone and ISP services to community anchor institutions including the entire public University of North Carolina system, all public K-12 schools in the state, a majority of the independent colleges and universities and 20 of the 58 institutions in the North Carolina Community College System. This project will both provide better and more reliable connections for rural education and community support organizations already on NCREN, and create better connectivity for anchor institutions that are not part of NCREN, such as rural libraries, not-for-profit hospitals, and county-operated free health-care clinics. This would allow for expanded use of distance learning, telehealth services, electronic medical-records sharing, and smart-grid technology.

The Mitchell County Virtual Learning and Communications Center project plans to double the number of public computer workstations available to residents of Mitchell County, NC, provide job training and educational courses through the local community college and extension service, and expand broadband Internet access by creating a Wi-Fi hotspot in the newly-renovated historic courthouse that will reach the adjacent library and parts of downtown Bakersville, NC. The project expects to provide 28 laptops that can be checked out from the courthouse, and serve over 300 users per week with broadband access and training. Mayland Community College and the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service plan to use two new videoconferencing systems provided with grant funds to provide much-needed Courses and workshops for a broad audience.

State Broadband Capacity Building:

The e-NC Authority will continue to track broadband policy issues for the state, educate state leaders about broadband usage and deployment, serve as a technical resource to state organizations, preserve partnerships with local level broadband technology programs and the Indian Commission, and maintain strong relationships with broadband Internet service providers.

Technical Assistance:

The project will re-establish regional offices in eastern, central, and western areas of the state. Staff will provide direct technical assistance to local communities, assess local resources, and assist in developing broadband plans with these communities to move forward with solutions for broadband deployment and usage. Staff will also strengthen relationships with smaller providers to encourage their participation in data collection activities. In addition, the e-NC authority will convene a two-day working meeting to examine how to best measure the impact of state and national deployment of economic and community development.

Other:

Collaborating with providers, universities and other stakeholders, e-NC will conduct the Lifeline Online research project, which will measure the effect that various levels of training and subsidies have on broadband adoption rates across 270 households in North Carolina. e-NC will evaluate the project’s performance and provide needed data as the federal government considers amending the Lifeline program.

Data Collection, Integration, and Validation:

This project was originally funded for broadband planning activities and two years of data collection. In September of 2010, this project was amended to extend data collection activities for an additional three years and to identify and implement best practices

Address File Development:

The North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (CGIA) will build on the statewide addressing effort that began prior to the 2010 census. CGIA and e-NC will form a working group of local governments to document best practices identified in the first phase and will also develop an automated procedure for filtering the data that has remained unchanged between address file data collection cycles.

The 21st Century Information and Support Ecosystem project proposes to implement a comprehensive program of computer training, wireless Internet access, broadband awareness marketing, and online content and applications to residents of 159 affordable and public housing developments and low-income communities in 50 cities and towns across 31 states and the District of Columbia. The project plans to implement four principal programs: training 2,500 youth to become “Digital Connectors” who will then provide digital literacy training to others in their communities; deploying localized broadband networks in public housing developments; developing online content and applications aimed at low-income, low-literacy audiences.