Reinforcing A Unique Approach to Internet Infrastructure

Investing in Community-centered Broadband

Internet access is too important to leave to the market and the traditional operators that have failed billions of people around the world who remain underserved.

Community-focused ISPs connect those hardest to reach. Connect Humanity invests in these organizations in order to help underserved communities gain internet access and to help people in those communities take advantage of civic and economic opportunities.

As admirers of their work, we’ve watched them evolve, and see synergy in our mutual interests, goals, and work. We contributed to their general operating fund to support their work to identify and implement unique funding models for communities that need them. In part, their approach to digital equity is to address the financing of digital infrastructure needed to create online access to underserved communities.

Digital Equity Challenges Connect Humanity is Addressing

Community-centric broadband is an investable asset class, yet communities and mission-aligned ISPs lack access to capital.

Broadband is an essential service that has become a utility. However, the capital market financing broadband has not evolved. The primary sources of capital are public grants and private equity. Both are flawed in trying to serve historically marginalized and underinvested communities. Connect Humanity is addressing three elements of this problem.

By Investing in Community-centric Broadband, Connect Humanity is Narrowing the Digital Divide in Three Ways:

1. Reducing Digital Redlining Practices: Digital redlining is the practice of creating inequities for marginalized groups through the use of digital technologies. With de facto monopolies, ISPs, particularly incumbent operators, are incentivized to perpetuate digital redlining. Today, over 85M Americans can only access the internet through a single provider. And the outcomes are clear — low-income communities are cut off from access to broadband internet services. Community-centric ISPs are a long-term, sustainable solution for affordable and accessible broadband.
2. Addressing the Shortfall of Public Grants: Over the last 15 years, the U.S. Government has spent $50-75 billion of grant funding to close the digital divide. This investment was only able to bridge 1% of the need. It’s clear that public grants will not be enough to address the needs of historically marginalized communities and they are the most likely to be left behind.
   
   Over the past three years, Connect Humanity has developed a proven model to advise, finance, and connect historically marginalized communities. They partner closely with communities to shift power dynamics and decision-making into communities’ hands through a combination of technical advice and investment capital that centers communities’ interests and needs. 35 Mile Foundation’s general operating grant helps advance these efforts.
3. Private Equity Impact on Vulnerable Communities: The largest 20 private equity funds have each raised over $2.5 billion on average to invest in digital infrastructure. Their target rates of returns will price out low-income communities while also threatening long-term affordability and sustainability. As they consolidate networks, they will be selling their networks to large and incumbent ISPs who it has been shown will under-maintain, under-service, and over-charge the most vulnerable communities.
   
   35 Mile Foundation’s grant helps position Connect Humanity to be able to make equitable, sustainable strides toward bridging the digital divide and address the risk of losing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring historically marginalized communities into today’s digital society.

Project Goals

General operating support helps Connect Humanity build the infrastructure needed to scale their engagement with under-resourced communities. Connect Humanity has specified that a substantial portion of the funds are to be used for fund formation costs (e.g., legal fees to set up a community broadband investment fund).