Gregory Pranzo, founder and CEO of PranzoTech Solutions, is calling for urgent, community-led action to close the digital divide, arguing that both the private and public sectors have overlooked the problem. In a recent interview, Pranzo emphasized that the solution lies not in more broadband expansion announcements, but in grassroots efforts to teach people how to use existing technology.
“We don't need another press release about broadband expansion plans,” Pranzo said. “We need people on the ground showing others how to use the tools we already have. It's local, it's urgent, and it's everyone's job.”
Pranzo’s work in Baltimore has revealed the hidden costs of digital exclusion. He cited examples of small business owners unable to access affordable automation tools and families left out of city services due to a lack of basic digital literacy. “When a resident can't apply for a housing program because the form is online, that's not a tech failure—it's a systems failure,” he said.
The scale of the problem is underscored by data: 35% of households in underserved Baltimore neighborhoods still lack reliable internet access, according to the Baltimore Civic Tech Survey (2024). Nationally, 43% of adults in low-income U.S. households do not have home broadband (Pew Research Center, 2023), and more than 30 million Americans lack basic digital skills like creating a spreadsheet or sending a professional email (National Skills Coalition, 2022).
“These gaps don't just impact individuals,” Pranzo added. “They impact city budgets, workforce pipelines, healthcare systems—everything.”
While his company builds dashboards, smart infrastructure, and automation tools, Pranzo stressed that the most impactful solutions are often low-tech. “Sometimes the most important thing you can do is help someone sign up for email or show them how to use a shared document. That's how change starts,” he said.
In 2024, Pranzo helped launch a citywide digital skills accelerator that trained over 300 Baltimore residents in basic tech fluency, many of whom had never used a computer before. He also volunteers with Code B'More, a youth organization teaching coding and robotics in underserved neighborhoods. “We can't build smart cities if we leave whole communities digitally invisible,” he emphasized.
Pranzo is urging individuals, businesses, and civic groups to take local ownership of digital access and education. Recommended actions include donating working laptops or tablets to community organizations, hosting free tech literacy workshops, mentoring someone learning digital skills, advocating for city budgets that support community technology staff, and designing tools with non-experts in mind. “Innovation isn't about building for the top 1% of users,” he said. “It's about making sure the bottom 30% can still participate.”
