High price of broadband keeps people disconnected during pandemic

"I had wanted to be online for years," says the 65 years, but "I have to pay the rent, buy my food, there were other things that were important."

For as long as the Internet has existed, there has been a divide between those who have it and those who have not, with increasing risks for people caught on the wrong side of America's "persistent digital divide." That's one of the reasons that, from the early days of his presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to make universal broadband a priority.

But Biden's promise has taken on additional urgency as a result of the pandemic. Covid-19 has widened many inequalities, including the "homework gap" that threatened to leave low-income students behind as schools moved online, as well as access to health care, unemployment benefits, court appearances and, increasingly, the COVID-19 vaccine, all of which require (or are facilitated by) Internet connections.

However, whether Biden can close the gap depends on how he defines the problem. Is it one that can be fixed with more infrastructure or one that requires social programs to address affordability and adoption gaps?

The hidden division

For years, the digital divide was seen as a primarily rural problem, and billions of dollars have been invested in expanding broadband infrastructure and financing telcos to reach more remote and underserved areas. This persistent focus on the rural-urban divide has left people like Marvis Phillips out of the loop, struggling with the affordability of Internet services, not proximity.

And at the beginning of the pandemic, the continuing impact of the digital divide became apparent when schools switched to online teaching. Images of students forced to sit in restaurant parking lots Having access to free WiFi so they could take their classes on the Internet showed how wide the digital divide continues to be in America.

The Federal Communications Commission took some action and asked Internet service providers to sign a voluntary pledge to keep services running and to waive late fees. The FCC has not released data on how many people benefited from the compromise, but received hundreds of complaints that the program was not working as expected.

Five hundred The pages of these complaints were published last year after a public records request from The Daily Dot. Among them was a mother who explained that the pandemic was forcing her to make an impossible decision.

"I have four children who are in school and need the Internet to do their school work online," he wrote. His line was disconnected despite a promise that it would not be shut down for non-payment. “I paid my bill of $ 221.00 to activate my services. It was the last money I had and now I don't have money to buy food for the week ”.

Other posts spoke of the need to give up food, diapers and other necessities to keep families connected for school work and work.

"It's not just about the number of people who have lost the Internet because they can't afford it," says Dana Floberg, a policy manager for the consumer advocacy organization Free Press. "We believe that a much larger number of people ... cannot afford the Internet, but are sacrificing other needs."

According to Ann Veigle, a spokeswoman for the FCC, such complaints are passed on to providers, who "must respond to the FCC and the consumer in writing within 30 days." It did not respond to questions about whether service providers had shared reports or results with the FCC, how many low-income Internet and phone subscribers have benefited from the promise, or any other results of the program.

The lack of data is part of a broader problem with the FCC's approach, Floberg says, as former President Ajit Pai re-categorized the Internet from a utility company, such as electricity, to a less regulated “information service” . It considers that restoring the FCC's regulatory authority is “the lynchpin” toward “universal and equitable access and affordability” of broadband Internet, increasing competition and, in turn, resulting in better service and lower prices.

Measuring the wrong things

It took Marvis Phillips three months of free internet, two months of individual training, and two donated iPads, updated during the pandemic to accommodate Zoom and telehealth calls, to connect. And since the city ordered people to stay home to prevent the virus from spreading, Phillips says the Internet has become his "lifeline."

“Loneliness and social isolation is… a problem of social justice and poverty,” says Cathy Michalec, executive director of Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly, the nonprofit that helped Phillips connect as part of her mission. to serve low-income seniors. As with other solutions for isolation (bus fare to visit a park, tickets to a museum), Internet connections also require financial resources that many older adults do not have.