ConnectHome Financial Benefactors President Obama announcing the first ConnectHome initiative with the Choctaw Nation in Durant, OK. ConnectHome is a piece of the Obama Administration’s ConnectED initiative. It was announced in 2013 with the intention on bringing 99% of K- 12 students access to broadband internet. The program’s initial rollout includes 27 cities and the Choctaw Nation, and focuses on low- income, rural communities. Financial Benefactors Free Service offered by: Google Fiber Sprint Best Buy Local ISs $250,000: GitHub $100,000: 80/20 Foundation Discounted Services: CenturyLink Cox Comparison to other nationally-backed D.Div. Initiatives As part of a pledge to increase Internet literacy in the 1990s, South Korea’s gov’t doubled spending on IT infrastructure from 1998 to 2001. Thanks to nationalization, internet access in China increased dramatically, from 1.7% of the population having access in 2000, to 31.6% by 2010. Singapore’s proposed Next Generation Broadband Network, in which it has invested $520 million (US), will provide, at minimum, anywhere from T-Base 100 to Gigabit speeds. Overall, attempts to bridge the digital divide have been met with success: In 2012, 98% of US households had access to 4G wireless broadband, up from 0% in 2009.

References https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/07/15/fact-sheet-connecthome-coming-together- ensure-digital-opportunity-all http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/07/16/obamas-connecthome-aims-to-bridge-digital-divide https://www.choctawnation.com/news-events/press-media/wiring-choctaw-nation http://www.heralddemocrat.com/article/20160331/NEWS/303319974 http://www.ida.gov.sg/Infrastructure/20060919190208.aspx