Twin Cities

Oct. 16, 2015 Today’s Mobile Citizen story features Minnesota’s Neighbors. Only 21 days left to stop the shutdown. Sign our petition. Having Internet access is like having food. Everyone needs and deserves it, even if they cannot afford it. Thanks to nonprofit organizations like Minnesota’s Neighbors Inc., people living below the poverty line are getting

Oct. 15, 2015 One of Voqal’s projects, Mobile Citizen, is in trouble. Mobile Citizen, along with a similar project named Mobile Beacon, relies on a partnership with Sprint to provide unlimited broadband service to 429 schools, 61 libraries and 1,820 nonprofit organizations across the country. Sprint is shutting down the WiMax Network on Nov. 6

October 14, 2015 On November 6, Sprint is shutting down its WiMax network, effectively shutting off Internet access to more than 300,000 people. While we have been trying for a year to work with Sprint to transition our customers off the WiMax network and onto the surviving LTE network we have encountered a series of

Online platform helps first-generation college students and their parents For Voqal Fellow Luis Hernandez, innovation was sparked when he saw the unique needs of high school students who were members of the first generation in their families to apply for college. “Students couldn’t go home and ask their parents about financial aid — their parents

Voqal Fellow Yongjun Heo Fights Hunger with Technology Not content with simply pursuing profit, today’s brightest young entrepreneurs are forging innovative paths to social change. “I’m very passionate about social causes,” said Yongjun Heo, whose organization, Farepath, uses technology to fight hunger. “If I see a potential solution to a problem, I’ll think about ways

October 2, 2015 Voqal, on behalf of Mobile Citizen, filed a reply comment with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging the Commission to revisit Educational Broadband Service (EBS) Rules for the benefit of education and reducing the digital divide. In its filing, Voqal urged the FCC to: Update and modernize EBS Rules Open up opportunities to

September 30, 2015 Voqal Fellowship is seeking the best and brightest young innovators with brilliant ideas for creating social change. Applications are now open for the third class of the fellowship, which provides tech and social entrepreneurs with the mentoring and resources needed to bring their innovations to life. One of the few fellowships that

September 28, 2015 The UpTake, a Minnesota-based nonprofit and Voqal Fund grantee, has announced its Fall 2015 Conflict-Sensitive Video Journalism Fellowship. The fellowship enhances journalists’ ability to report political, social, economic and cultural conflict in their communities through video journalism. The first fellowship class is comprised of five journalists and photojournalists based in Minnesota. They

September 9, 2015 Without online access, many poor and low-income global citizens face serious roadblocks in education, employment and participation in world politics. Voqal will join researchers, policymakers and practitioners at the Partnership for Progress on the Digital Divide (PPDD) 2015 International Conference, addressing the issue of inequity in online access across the world. Cassie

July 25, 2015 Boulder, Colorado’s KGNU radio host, Gavin Dahl, recently spoke with public interest advocates about digital inclusion on his weekly show, “It’s the Economy.” Guests included Mobile Citizen’s Managing Director Cassie Bair, along with Amina Fazullah, policy director at Benton Foundation and Angelia Siefer, director of National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA). The discussion