From the article: According to a representative of the Michigan Education Association on a call I attended a couple of weeks ago, 50% of schoolchildren in the state lacked Internet access adequate...
From the article:
Three out of every four Americans who lack broadband access have the infrastructure in their neighborhood but haven’t connected to it. Most, like Alexis and Eva, just don’t have the money. Unlike in other wealthy nations, the federal government has imposed no cost controls to make broadband more affordable. The result: massive inequality in one of the modern world’s most basic utilities.
“The digital divide in America is largely urban,” said Gigi Sohn, a lawyer and former Federal Communications Commission staffer under Obama. “It’s largely low-income and it’s largely minority communities. Even if you account for income, people of color are disproportionately impacted negatively. They’re on the wrong side of the digital divide.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has handed corporations even greater control over the market while preparing to hand them billions more in public money without clear data on where broadband internet is needed and without guarantees that the infrastructure will actually be built.
According to a representative of the Michigan Education Association on a call I attended a couple of weeks ago, 50% of schoolchildren in the state lacked Internet access adequate for online school attendance.
Most U.S. broadband users pay a surtax, the Universal Service Fund charge, on their bills which is supposed to fund infrastructure development and subsidize low-income users, among other uses. Typical collections amount to $8 billion annually, split among multiple services. This flat fee collection is effectively shrinking over time as a proportion of ISP charges. It's nowhere near enough to serve a nation with the size and infrastructure challenges of the U.S., even assuming the funds are spent effectively and appropriately.
From the article:
According to a representative of the Michigan Education Association on a call I attended a couple of weeks ago, 50% of schoolchildren in the state lacked Internet access adequate for online school attendance.
Most U.S. broadband users pay a surtax, the Universal Service Fund charge, on their bills which is supposed to fund infrastructure development and subsidize low-income users, among other uses. Typical collections amount to $8 billion annually, split among multiple services. This flat fee collection is effectively shrinking over time as a proportion of ISP charges. It's nowhere near enough to serve a nation with the size and infrastructure challenges of the U.S., even assuming the funds are spent effectively and appropriately.