What Solutions Exist to Eradicate the Digital Divide?
Capital B’s “Disconnected: Rural Black America and the Digital Divide” project explores the disparate effects of broadband accessibility on Black Americans in the rural South. Check out the first story here. You can read the second story here.
The digital divide in the Black rural South has been a problem for decades — but the solution is complex because the root causes stem from not only limited federal funding but a lack of infrastructure investment, poverty, and digital redlining.
As Capital B reported in our recent “Digital Divide” series, unaffordable and limited high-speed internet has caused residents to stop by libraries to stream funeral services, visit hotels to apply for jobs, or purchase mobile hotspots that cost “an arm and a leg.” Congress may have released billions of dollars to fix the issue, but several experts told us more needs to be done.
Dominique Harrison, a tech policy expert, said that in a region where 38% of Black households don’t have home internet, it is incumbent that state leaders work with community leaders, citizens, and internet providers to ensure these communities don’t get left behind.
“These particular communities need to be prioritized because of the unique challenges they have historically faced, but also with all the resources that are like leaving — the number of hospitals that are closing down, lack of resources those educational institutions have, the lack of job growth,” Harrison said. “In order for them to be stronger, there needs to be strong internet connection so that people can have access to the kinds of things that they need to live a productive and successful, healthy life.”
And while the challenges with building out infrastructure to support high-speed internet have been widely reported, Capital B will continue to explore this issue, particularly solutions — where broadband has successfully been implemented and the programs that exist to help with affordability.
In the meantime, here are a few reading materials to get you up to speed:
What to Read:
Expanding Broadband in the Black Rural South — In this study, tech policy expert Dominique Harrison examined broadband accessibility and availability in the Black rural South, which includes 152 counties in 10 Southern states. She found that 38% of Black Americans reported living without access to the internet at home.
16 Million families may be told they’re losing their internet. Tell Congress why internet is crucial for school, work and more. — The federal government created the Affordable Connectivity Program to provide discounts on internet and devices to low-income families. However, it is unclear whether Congress will reauthorize the program. Color of Change is collecting the stories from everyday folks on why the internet is crucial in their lives.
Black Churches Play a Key Role in Connecting Rural Communities to Broadband Internet — This story by Religion News is about how instrumental Black churches have been in helping to bridge the digital divide across the country, especially in the South.
Dollars to Megabits, You May Be Paying 400 Times As Much As Your Neighbor for Internet Service — In this investigation, the Markup found that in 38 major cities, four internet providers, including AT&T, offered the worst internet deals in neighborhoods that were lower income, historically redlined, or had the fewest white residents compared with other parts of the same city.
FCC adopts rules to eliminate ‘digital discrimination’ for communities with poor internet access — Given discrimination allegations against internet service providers, the Federal Communications Commission enacted a new rule in November to investigate discrimination by internet companies based on income, race, and ethnicity.
How Broadband Infrastructure Gets Built — The Pew Charitable Trusts details what it takes to build out the physical infrastructure of the internet.
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