This time last year, Joshua Edmonds was preparing to face members of Cleveland City Council with mixed news. The nonprofit internet service provider he leads, DigitalC, had made progress in its mission to bring low-cost broadband internet to every resident of Cleveland. In 2023, when the city set aside federal money to fund the work, more than one-third of Clevelanders lacked the service.
But at the end of 2024, the first year of the four-year, $20 million contract, DigitalC had fallen short in one of the key metrics. Edmonds touted what he called “unheard-of progress” but council still opted towithhold a $1 million payment.
This year, DigitalC says it has finished building its citywide network and connected 4,700 more Cleveland households to its $18 per month broadband service (or free if a CMSD student lives there). That brought the total number of households to more than 7,500. It also provided online skills training programs for 10,000 residents.
Those numbers meet the contract requirements. The next payment is for $2.35 million.
“This was a bit of a bounce-back, redemption year for us,” Edmonds told Signal Cleveland. “There was a lot of information in the first year, a lot of adjustments that we were able to figure out in this second year, and we got the results to prove it.”
He pointed to DigitalC’s average Google review score, 4.8 out of five stars, based on almost 200 reviews.
Expansion of program to Detroit
In June, DigitalC announced a pilot program in Detroit, serving about 450 families in three public housing facilities there. Rocket Mortgage’s Rocket Community Fund financed the project.
In October, Edmonds told city council’s Utilities Committee that DigitalC is also providing service to five businesses as part of a pilot program to generate revenue. In addition to its contract with Cleveland, Digital C receives funding from the State of Ohio and several foundations and companies.
That October meeting with council was largely cordial. Edmonds repeatedly referred to council and the city as partners who are equally responsible for DigitalC’s success. Still, members had a lot of questions for Edmonds and for city officials about how the city audits DigitalC’s numbers and whether there might be more thorough methods.
In 2026, the contract calls for DigitalC to sign up 7,100 more Cleveland households for service, almost double the number in years one and two combined. The goal is “daunting — not impossible, but daunting,” Edmonds said. He’s confident that the organization will succeed with support from its partners, including the council members who have been skeptical in the past.
“There’s been times when I’ve not agreed with what’s been said at that [meeting] table or the way things get conducted,” he said. “But at the same time, I can see that the way that they approach this is also leading to the results that everyone seems to be pretty happy with, ourselves included.”
