Though Ohio currently ranks 39th on the state index, strong stakeholder leadership and investment have the state poised to improve its standing on all indicators—broadband adop¬tion, network deployment and strength of digital economy. Governor John Kasich announcing plans to have the state spend $8.1 million to upgrade Ohio’s existing fiber optic network, connecting schools, govern¬ments, and other anchor institutions. The plan calls for a ten-fold increase in download speeds, expand¬ing the network’s capacity to 100 Gbps. In addition to these state initiatives, Ohio has a long history of non-profit groups promoting and expanding the use of broadband by its citizens.

But by 2010, wireless adoption among the elderly has grown to nearly 80 percent.

Over 30 percent of all U.S. households have eliminated their land line service and the percentage of these households that rely exclusively on landline telecommunications has fallen dramatically: from 58 percent in 2003 to only 19 by 2010.

In addition to this decline in new business development since the recession, the below-parity performance by African American-owned businesses presents a significant lost opportunity for job creation. Had minority businesses reached parity with other businesses, the economy would have created $2.5 trillion in additional economic activity and 16.1 million additional jobs.

STEM, Center for Workforce Innovation Job Training, Entrepreneurship Centers of the National Urban League have contributed greatly to the success of African Americans. STEM saw a gain in reading and language and math of over 30% in its students. Center for Workforce Innovation has a success rate of over 70% for its participants who not only receive education but an apprenticeship.  Entrepreneurship Centers of the National Urban League provided 10,911 hours of management counseling and 11,242 hours of business skills training to 5,938 entrepreneurs in 2010 in key focus areas of management skill evaluations, relationship building, strategic group deployment, and business management training.

—In 2009, the home broadband access gap was 19 percentage points. 53 percent of African Americans believed that lack of broadband is a major disadvantage to finding out about jobs and career skills in 2010.