On January 22, 2019, the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s policy team attended the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) event, Can a Voluntary Auction of the 2.5 GHz EBS Spectrum Band Help Close the Homework Gap? at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The “homework gap” refers to the millions of students who are assigned homework that requires the internet to complete, but do not have access to the internet at home. In other words, the homework gap indicates the number of students who fall behind or struggle to stay on pace at school because they lack access to the internet outside of the classroom. The event kicked off with an introduction by IIA Honorable Chair, Former Congressman Rick Boucher, and was followed by two sessions on spectrum policy. The first session, Honoring the History of the Educational Broadband Service Spectrum Band with Smart Use Today, featured a fireside chat with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Congressman Boucher. Commissioner Rosenworcel emphasized the opportunity to close the homework gap through auction of the 2.5 GHz band--a band the Commissioner says is already being utilized all over the world. The second session, Using 2.5 GHz Auction Proceeds to Advance 5G and Educational Uses of Broadband for America’s Children, featured a distinguished panel with representatives from the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, Communications Workers of America, EveryoneOn, North American Catholic Educational Programming Foundation, and Intel. The panel was moderated by Fred Campbell, Director at Tech Knowledge, and explored various approaches to using spectrum allocation to solve the homework gap.
