Nokia is leveraging its Digital Automation Cloud end-to-end private wireless solution to bring affordable and reliable internet access to thousands of people in Cleveland
Nokia is focusing its latest digital divide efforts in Cleveland, Ohio where the company is working with non-profit organization, DigitalC, to bring high-speed internet connectivity to underserved homes. To do this, Nokia is leveraging its Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) end-to-end private wireless solution, allowing DigitalC to use private LTE technology over the Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) 3.5 GHz band to provide affordable, reliable and high-speed internet access to thousands of people around the city.
DigitalC’s CEo Dorothy Baunauch pointed out that while 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic, “highlighted the digital divide,” this issue is actually “longstanding,” adding that the company is “pleased to work with Nokia to bridge this gap and provide greater education, health and economic opportunities to more people in and around the city.”
A 2019 survey of the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey (ACS) revealed that nearly 53,000 households in Ohio – 31% of the city’s total – didn’t have a broadband subscription plan. This puts Cleveland as the most underserved city in the U.S. with a total of 100,000 or more households.
Nokia’s DAC solution is end-to-end, comprised of the network core, radio access and indoor and outdoor customer premises equipment (CPE) for deployment in users’ homes. Where it proves particularly costly or challenging to place traditional connectivity, the solution offers plug-and-play private wireless option.
“Leveraging our leading private wireless capabilities, we created the end-to-end Nokia DAC as a complete solution for anyone wanting to provide secure, reliable, high-speed 4G and 5G connectivity where it is most needed,” commented Ed Cholerton, President of Nokia North America.
While Cleveland appears to be in dire need of connectivity, this problem persists through most of the U.S., and the world. According to Nokia’s website, as many as 18 million Americans do not have access to high-speed internet. Many of these families live in remote farming communities, where it is not commercially viable to build out networks, but plenty of others live in cities where internet access is too costly.
For its part, Nokia supports the 2025 targets set by the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development that aims to ‘connect the other half in the next five years, seven of which call for national broadband plans that specifically address affordability, access and digital skill levels by region, demographic and gender.
