Southern California’s Riverside County, home to 2.4 million people spread across dozens of municipalities and unincorporated communities, was grappling with a problem familiar to many local governments outside major urban hubs: a stubborn digital divide. More than 61,000 households in the county lacked a home broadband subscription, posing a major impediment to everything from finding a job to scheduling medical care, obtaining public services, and even staying in touch with loved ones. With so much of modern life conducted digitally, residents without easy access to high-speed internet or digital skills risked falling behind.
The county knew it needed to expand broadband infrastructure to unserved areas and improve digital literacy and adoption through better community engagement. And it needed a funding strategy that would enable it to do those things.
County leadership turned to Guidehouse, engaging the firm as a strategic advisor to help stand up the county’s broadband office and RivCo Connect—its broadband and digital-support initiative—and to reshape its broadband strategy. The engagement would ultimately also entail grants-management support; partnership-building with dozens of county departments, cities, and regional bodies to reach a wider range of underserved residents; and hands-on help with implementing digital upskilling and adoption initiatives.
Guidehouse set out to create a multifaceted Broadband Master Plan that addressed the critical needs the county wanted to tackle. Priority number one: stakeholder engagement. Working with county leadership, Guidehouse teams established partnerships for conducting outreach to residents eligible for aid through the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), the federal broadband access initiative for low-income households. Circulating ACP materials and helping organize enrollment events, Guidehouse gathered information about specific challenges and opportunities affecting residents, compiling the insights into a Broadband Stakeholder Engagement Report. To extend the reach of its work, Guidehouse has also:
When the ACP ended in June 2024, Guidehouse shifted its focus to digital literacy and skills. As part of this work, Guidehouse developed a Digital Skills Report, which synthesized findings, recommendations, and market research and contained a cost-benefit analysis for developing a statewide Digital Skills Program.
The Guidehouse team also helped launch the county’s Tech on Wheels program, which deploys two specially equipped vans that provide free digital navigation services and digital literacy training to residents. Guidehouse co-developed the RFP for the program; helped onboard staff; developed a training curriculum, a program handbook, and program reporting templates; and is providing ongoing program reporting.
With Guidehouse’s assistance, Riverside County has been able to put in place an actionable, sustainable broadband strategy, one that’s informed by real data, governed by best practices, and driven by the insights contained in the stakeholder and funding reports that Guidehouse created. The strategy has already yielded concrete results:
What’s more, the extensive documentation compiled by Guidehouse has helped Riverside County make a case for investing in broadband access and digital skills training to a wider array of potential funders and partners. To take one example, a net-present-value analysis contained in the Digital Skills Report indicates that every dollar invested in digital upskilling can yield up to seven dollars in economic benefits. It’s a finding that says volumes about the transformative potential of closing the digital divide.
Guidehouse is a global AI-led professional services firm delivering advisory, technology, and managed services to the commercial and government sectors. With an integrated business technology approach, Guidehouse drives efficiency and resilience in the healthcare, financial services, energy, infrastructure, and national security markets.