The ‘internet divide’ describes unequal internet access: those who have high speed broadband internet in their home on one side and those who don’t on the other. It divides citizens by economic class. Broadband may not be terribly expensive for middle class households (unless cost-burdened by rent or mortgage payments). But broadband services fees are often unaffordable for lower income families.
Meanwhile, access to the internet has become essential to many aspects of modern life, including education and employment. More and more, unequal access means unequal opportunity. For one example, read at Pew Research: Nearly one-in-five teens can’t always finish their homework because of the digital divide
The internet is as essential today as electricity became in the last century. Communities might consider that any new home, even the most modest affordable or social housing, should be wired for broadband internet. It’s certainly an admirable objective.
But wiring is not the same as delivering, whether the service is electricity or broadband internet. With the advent of Wi-Fi, wiring is becoming less significant to broadband access. Wi-Fi also threatens the death-grip of commercial internet providers with their vast networks of wire or optical fibre.
Until recently, internet access has been offered almost exclusively by private communications companies. They are aware that their pricing constrains access. Some make public relations gestures to wire up groups of more needy customers at lower rates.
Ultimately however, the primary goal of private communications companies is profit (and mighty profit if possible), through hefty monthly payments for ongoing internet service.
Electricity service by contrast? If private electricity companies delivered the goods as a public relations gesture to small, publicity-attractive, low income groups, it would be considered unfair. It would leave the vast majority of low income households (and almost invariably housing-burdened) to use candles and coal.
For internet service, one alternative with more promise is broadband internet as a public utility.
And the good news? It’s on its way.
The following article in Axios explores a number of innovative community experiments to provide internet as a public service.
And who might benefit from an early jump onto the Wi-Fi bandwagon? In the Axios article, pay particular attention to the benefits which came to communities that climbed aboard the electricity bandwagon as early as the 1920’s and 1930’s. Read more in Axios: Electricity 2.0: Small cities rush to innovate on wifi
As for the American government at least, it’s been trying, sort of, to promote universal access. Or it was. There has been a certain amount of backsliding in this regard under the current Republican administration. Read more, also in Axios: What the government is doing on internet access
