Giving Compass' Take:
- Linda Poon discusses efforts to offer free internet connectivity in areas that are heavily populated by people who cannot afford the available connections.
- How can donors help to put systems in place that can continue to address the affordability barrier to internet access beyond the pandemic?
- Read about why internet access is the top equity issue for students during the pandemic.
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This article originally appeared at Bloomberg CityLab and is published in partnership with the Solutions Journalism Exchange.
When the pandemic shut down schools in March, it created a new urgency to narrow the digital gap in the U.S. as millions of students struggled to participate in remote learning because they didn’t have internet access at home. It also reinforced the reality that the divide doesn’t just exist between rural and urban communities, but also within America’s largest cities. Some 500,000 households lack reliable connection in New York City, for example; in Chicago, 1 in 5 students don’t have broadband, according to data published at the start of the pandemic.
As many local governments have scrambled to secure internet access for children in virtual school, some policies could last past the pandemic. One popular approach in cities like Washington, D.C., and Chicago has been providing low-cost or free service to families who can’t afford a broadband subscription, and the tech devices to go with them. Some measures are currently set up to last only a year, while others, like Chicago’s, will continue for several years. Recognizing that the digital divide will persist after the pandemic, digital inclusion advocates say there is a need for more permanent solutions.
One approach that’s gained traction is for local communities to play a direct role in providing internet service—in many cases by building their own or relying on their own infrastructure.
“The options in front of them looking at the affordability barrier were to pay for existing service—cellular through hotspot, or wireline—or build something,” says Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance. “And I think the folks who went with the build-it solution are the ones thinking, ‘This problem isn’t going away after the pandemic.’”
Read the full article about bridging the digital divide by Linda Poon at The 74.