So Many People Dont Have Internet Georgianne Wright

When Georgianne Wright and her 13-year-old grandson, Keiontay, wanted to use the internet before the pandemic, she'd try the prepaid wireless plan she purchased from a national service provider. But the pair often gave up on browsing the internet or watching a movie thanks to the slow connection.

"It wasn't working. It didn't benefit neither one of us," says Wright, who is Keiontay's primary caregiver and lives in Highland Park, a small city surrounded by Detroit.

Then the pandemic struck and Wright desperately needed not only a reliable, fast connection but also a computer so that Keiontay could attend school remotely. Until then, they'd been using her phone to go online.

In Detroit, high-speed internet is concentrated in downtown and the surrounding affluent suburbs. But quality internet is often unaffordable or unavailable for tens of thousands of residents. Before the pandemic, the city's median household income was $31,000, and many households couldn't pay for water or electricity, much less high-speed internet packages that, in the U.S., average $70 per month.

The digital divide in Detroit is stark. More than a third of homes have no connection, two-thirds of low-income homes don't have broadband, and 70 percent of public school students can't access the internet from home, according to data collected prior to the pandemic.

So when many Americans hunkered down in their homes last spring, with an internet connection functioning like a lifeline to work, school, family, and resources like telehealth services and grocery delivery, Wright scrambled for a solution.

Her story may sound familiar to the 77 million Americans who don't have an adequate home internet connection. Only two-thirds of people who live in the country's bottom income bracket can access the internet from home, and half of those do so from a mobile phone, according to Free Press, a nonprofit advocacy organization that focuses on policymaking for a "free and open" internet. While a quarter of white people lack wired broadband, the problem disproportionately affects Black, Latino, and Indigenous people, a third or more of whom don't have access.

The pandemic has proven that consistent access to high-speed internet is an essential good. Without it, urgent tasks like applying for unemployment, attending school, scheduling a vaccine appointment, and seeing loved ones are difficult or impossible. Those who've finally gotten connected during the pandemic say it provides a sense of normalcy and safety amidst crisis. Advocates of equitable access say the internet is no luxury but instead a utility like water, gas, or electricity, and that Americans like Wright shouldn't be left behind to bridge the digital divide on her own.

Digital redlining

By last September, help indeed arrived for Wright. Organizers from the North End Woodward Community Coalition (NEWCC), a social justice and community development nonprofit, had been knocking on doors in Highland Park trying to find residents who needed internet. In partnership with the Detroit Community Technology Project and its Equitable Internet Initiative, the organizers were offering free or affordable high-speed internet to residents in North End, a Detroit neighborhood, and Highland Park via a "neighborhood-governed" community wireless network. Wright signed up.

What she got was fully subsidized internet as well as a refurbished desktop computer and new accessories so that Keiontay could attend his 6th grade classes virtually. Now he spends his days in class and exploring his favorite subjects, English and science. He also plays games and helps his grandmother pay bills and access email. Wright, who previously worked as a housecleaner, spends some of her time online looking for social support programs that might assist Keiontay and her.

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To make home installations safe, NEWCC developed "internet in a box" kits that include a power strip and wireless internet router. Wright received one as well, which meant that she set up the connection inside with the guidance of a technician who also completed the outdoor installation.

Wright's wireless router connects to the Equitable Internet Initiative's fixed wireless infrastructure. The technology, which is widespread, offers speeds the same or competitive with wired broadband, but does not require phone or cable lines to work.

This is critical in Detroit. Low-income neighborhoods lack the fiber optic cables that bring the internet into homes at lightning-fast speeds. Janice Gates, director of the Equitable Internet Initiative, says that cable companies and internet service providers have failed to invest in digital infrastructure in these neighborhoods because it's not seen as profitable. As a result, the major internet service providers in Detroit, which face little competition, sometimes offer slow connections because they rely on outdated technology like DSL.

She describes the trend as digital redlining, a 21st century version of the discriminatory housing practices that kept people of color from white middle-class neighborhoods.

"To tell these people that because you live in this neighborhood, you're going to have slower speeds, poor-quality connections, to me just perpetuates and further oppresses Black and brown people," says Gates.

The Equitable Internet Initiative trains community members as "digital stewards," teaching them the engineering skills it takes to set up neighborhood-governed networks, as well as organizing skills like neighborhood canvassing. Since 2017, the initiative has connected 250 homes and businesses to high-speed internet. During the pandemic, it created several community hotspots accessed by 750 people daily and launched an intranet so that residents could access homework packets, find resources for transportation, food pantries, education, and communicate with each other online, a feature that Gates says was particularly important for seniors who felt unsafe going outside. Their work, and the customer subsidies, are underwritten by foundation grants.

Gates says the initiative is trying to increase its capacity to reach more Detroit residents, but she also knows that solutions to this problem require the way we think about internet access to fundamentally change.

Countless initiatives also rushed to provide schoolchildren with access and devices. The Verizon Innovative Learning program, a longstanding educational effort to close the digital divide, sent connected iPads to 123,000 children across the country last year. The devices access Verizon's 4G network and come with free 30GB of data per month, which is meant to support students who are in hybrid or virtual learning.