The Unacceptable Persistence of the Digital Divide

Millions of Americans lack broadband access and computer skills - can President Trump bring them into the digital economy?

by David Talbot  December 16, 2016

 

Most homes in the United States have Internet service, but they don’t in the poor parts of Cleveland and nearby suburbs. A survey in 2012 showed that 58 percent of the area’s households with incomes under $20,000 had neither home broadband nor mobile Internet access, often because of the cost. Another 10 percent had a mobile phone but no home broadband. Until recently, one such household was a ground-floor two-­bedroom apartment in a public housing project called Outhwaite Homes, where a circumspect 13-year-old girl named Ma’Niyah Larry lives with her mother, Marcella.

 

Ma’Niyah has a special-education plan for math; to help her, she’s been assigned problems to do online through Khan Academy. But her mother says she cannot afford broadband from Time Warner Cable, which would begin at around $50 a month, even for an entry-level offering, plus modem and taxes (and the price would rise significantly after the 12-month teaser rate expired). The family has a smartphone, but it’s harder for Ma’Niyah to use the small screen, and Marcella watches her data caps closely; just a few hours of Khan Academy videos would blow past monthly limits. Fast Internet access is available in a library a few blocks away, but “it’s so bad down here that it’s not really safe to walk outside,” Marcella Larry says. Ma’Niyah’s bedroom, its wall decorated with a feathery dream-catcher, faces a grassy courtyard where gang-related gunfire rang out on two nights last summer, causing Ma’Niyah to flee to the relative safety of the living room.

 

MORE:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603083/the-unacceptable-persistence-of-the-digital-divide/

Crazy fact, 2.1M people still use dial up aol as their source of internet! * as of may 2015

Potentially big...

 

 

 

 

More people in state government need to read this....

 

Broadband grows best when states are proactive, take down barriers

https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2020/Q3/broadband-grows-best-when-states-are-proactive,-take-down-barriers.html

It's time for the city of Cleveland to allow competitors into the marketplace as well.   Give Spectrum some competition, and rates will come down for all of us.   

 

Can Cleveland finally close its digital divide? A local nonprofit says it has a plan.

 

Oscar Lawrence didn’t know how much he needed the internet until last year, when he connected with DigitalC, a nonprofit providing low-cost internet service to Cleveland residents.

Now he uses the internet to run his plumbing business. He also researches countries he visited while in the Navy. 

Lawrence, 83, got internet access and training on how to use it through a program the nonprofit runs with the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority, which owns the Euclid Beach Gardens senior citizen highrise where he lives. The program, aimed at cultivating new internet users, is part of DigitalC’s strategy to go from serving 1,160 households in 2021 to 40,000 by 2025.

 

https://www.thelandcle.org/stories/can-cleveland-finally-close-its-digital-divide-a-local-nonprofit-says-it-has-a-plan

24 minutes ago, Cleburger said:

It's time for the city of Cleveland to allow competitors into the marketplace as well.   Give Spectrum some competition, and rates will come down for all of us.   

 

Can Cleveland finally close its digital divide? A local nonprofit says it has a plan.

 

Oscar Lawrence didn’t know how much he needed the internet until last year, when he connected with DigitalC, a nonprofit providing low-cost internet service to Cleveland residents.

Now he uses the internet to run his plumbing business. He also researches countries he visited while in the Navy. 

Lawrence, 83, got internet access and training on how to use it through a program the nonprofit runs with the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority, which owns the Euclid Beach Gardens senior citizen highrise where he lives. The program, aimed at cultivating new internet users, is part of DigitalC’s strategy to go from serving 1,160 households in 2021 to 40,000 by 2025.

 

https://www.thelandcle.org/stories/can-cleveland-finally-close-its-digital-divide-a-local-nonprofit-says-it-has-a-plan

 

Based upon my neighborhood, which is basically across the street from Lawrence, the  "divide" may be somewhat exaggerated as more than a few people split wifi costs among themselves.   I'm sure this is common in denser areas.

I think we may have a separate thread for muni Internet and fiber, and the Digital Divide is historically conceived more about the divide between those with Internet access (and familiarity with using it) and those without as opposed to those who have real broadband options vs. those who have to sit there and take whatever abuse Spectrum or Comcast choose to give them.  I remember writing about FairlawnGig on this site not long ago, and then broadening that to look at the other Summit County municipalities with broadband and realizing that it's considered a luxury amenity for exclusive communities (Fairlawn, Hudson, a new ring being deployed in Medina County) rather than a core revitalization asset highly prioritized by urban core communities.  The fact that Akron still has its head in the sand about this (they talk about it as a funding issue when the Fairlawn system pays for itself--in the direct sense, not in the nebulous political sense) is a serious failure of municipal leadership.  We should have had our own system at most a couple of years behind Fairlawn.

On 1/26/2022 at 9:50 AM, Gramarye said:

I think we may have a separate thread for muni Internet and fiber, and the Digital Divide is historically conceived more about the divide between those with Internet access (and familiarity with using it) and those without as opposed to those who have real broadband options vs. those who have to sit there and take whatever abuse Spectrum or Comcast choose to give them.  I remember writing about FairlawnGig on this site not long ago, and then broadening that to look at the other Summit County municipalities with broadband and realizing that it's considered a luxury amenity for exclusive communities (Fairlawn, Hudson, a new ring being deployed in Medina County) rather than a core revitalization asset highly prioritized by urban core communities.  The fact that Akron still has its head in the sand about this (they talk about it as a funding issue when the Fairlawn system pays for itself--in the direct sense, not in the nebulous political sense) is a serious failure of municipal leadership.  We should have had our own system at most a couple of years behind Fairlawn.

 

There is this resolution:

2021-295 A Resolution authorizing a professional service contract, subject to an award by the Board of Control, with Environmental Design Group, LLC, to perform consulting services in the planning of the expansion of broadband services into opportunity zones and job hub areas, ratifying acceptance of an EDA Cares Act grant and authorizing the required cash match for the Executive, and declaring an emergency.

 

In addition, according to this plan for ARPA funding, they intend to earmark $25 million for community broadband grants - the formula for which I have not seen announced yet, but it says "Formulary distribution approach based on census tract population and low to moderate income census tracts."

Edited February 22, 20223 yr by infrafreak

 

On 1/26/2022 at 9:50 AM, Gramarye said:

I think we may have a separate thread for muni Internet and fiber, and the Digital Divide is historically conceived more about the divide between those with Internet access (and familiarity with using it) and those without as opposed to those who have real broadband options vs. those who have to sit there and take whatever abuse Spectrum or Comcast choose to give them.  I remember writing about FairlawnGig on this site not long ago, and then broadening that to look at the other Summit County municipalities with broadband and realizing that it's considered a luxury amenity for exclusive communities (Fairlawn, Hudson, a new ring being deployed in Medina County) rather than a core revitalization asset highly prioritized by urban core communities.  The fact that Akron still has its head in the sand about this (they talk about it as a funding issue when the Fairlawn system pays for itself--in the direct sense, not in the nebulous political sense) is a serious failure of municipal leadership.  We should have had our own system at most a couple of years behind Fairlawn.

 

On 2/22/2022 at 5:02 PM, infrafreak said:

 

There is this resolution:

2021-295 A Resolution authorizing a professional service contract, subject to an award by the Board of Control, with Environmental Design Group, LLC, to perform consulting services in the planning of the expansion of broadband services into opportunity zones and job hub areas, ratifying acceptance of an EDA Cares Act grant and authorizing the required cash match for the Executive, and declaring an emergency.

 

In addition, according to this plan for ARPA funding, they intend to earmark $25 million for community broadband grants - the formula for which I have not seen announced yet, but it says "Formulary distribution approach based on census tract population and low to moderate income census tracts."

 

Incidentally, my ward councilman let me know last month that there was some rule change at some level (I don't even know what), but whatever it is, I'm grateful for it: AT&T Fiber recently expanded into Akron, and I hope that this was some kind of statewide rule change that will allow for broadband competition in previously monopolized areas all across the state.  I saw them tearing up the sidewalks and laying the fiber lines along the street in March.

 

We made the switch to 1000Mbps and so far it's been good, though it's had more connectivity issues than I'd hoped for, especially to the VPN at my work.  (My wife has not had similar issues with her work VPN.)  Speedtest usually shows me download speeds in the 700-800Mbps range, close enough to the advertised rate that I'm not calling to complain.

 

Pricing is similar to FairlawnGig (it's $5 more for 1-Gig AT&T Fiber in Akron than it would be for 1-Gig FairlawnGig service if I lived a little bit further west).  AT&T doesn't offer a 2500Mbps service for a direct competition at the other tier, but they offer 2000 and 5000 tiers and those prices looked competitive on a proportional basis with what FairlawnGig offers as well.  I've noted in the past that FairlawnGig is not a charity or a subsidy sink, so the fact that they're very similar in pricing with a private telecom company isn't monumentally surprising to me.

 

Still curious about what rule changed at what level to give AT&T the green light to roll this out.

On 4/25/2022 at 11:11 AM, Gramarye said:

 

 

Incidentally, my ward councilman let me know last month that there was some rule change at some level (I don't even know what), but whatever it is, I'm grateful for it: AT&T Fiber recently expanded into Akron, and I hope that this was some kind of statewide rule change that will allow for broadband competition in previously monopolized areas all across the state.  I saw them tearing up the sidewalks and laying the fiber lines along the street in March.

 

We made the switch to 1000Mbps and so far it's been good, though it's had more connectivity issues than I'd hoped for, especially to the VPN at my work.  (My wife has not had similar issues with her work VPN.)  Speedtest usually shows me download speeds in the 700-800Mbps range, close enough to the advertised rate that I'm not calling to complain.

 

Pricing is similar to FairlawnGig (it's $5 more for 1-Gig AT&T Fiber in Akron than it would be for 1-Gig FairlawnGig service if I lived a little bit further west).  AT&T doesn't offer a 2500Mbps service for a direct competition at the other tier, but they offer 2000 and 5000 tiers and those prices looked competitive on a proportional basis with what FairlawnGig offers as well.  I've noted in the past that FairlawnGig is not a charity or a subsidy sink, so the fact that they're very similar in pricing with a private telecom company isn't monumentally surprising to me.

 

Still curious about what rule changed at what level to give AT&T the green light to roll this out.

 

A few things to note:

 

Review of Ohio’s 2022-23 budget

https://www.policymattersohio.org/research-policy/quality-ohio/revenue-budget/budget-policy/review-of-ohios-2022-23-budget

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In this budget, lawmakers provide $250 million in funding to create and expand broadband services

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The 2022-23 budget establishes the “Residential Broadband Expansion Program,”

 

Summit County starting $75 million fiber internet project

https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/local/2022/04/10/summit-county-public-safety-fiber-communications-network-internet-access-fairlawn-gig-ohio-broadband/9500527002/

Quote

it creates the opportunity to partner with … private internet service providers who would then come in, bring private capital investment and invest in building out community-based networks

 

Despite reports of funding for broadband above, Ohio continues to rank in the bottom of states for access to broadband.

 

Quote

West Virginia was followed in the report by Alaska, Mississippi, Arkansas and Vermont. All five states at the bottom scored a zero on internet quality, or latency, which is the time it takes information to go from one source to another.

There were 16 states in the report that scored a zero in the quality category, including North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Michigan, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin.

https://thehill.com/policy/policy_future-of-broadband/3988376-these-are-the-best-and-worst-us-states-for-broadband-access/