Urban Broadband Needs Upgrading, Too

Patchwork broadband service in urban centers often goes overlooked, given the pervasive lack of access in many rural counties, but affects “virtually equal numbers of people” in states like Ohio, said one digital equity advocate. Bill Callahan, who runs a Cleveland-based nonprofit working to expand low-income broadband access and serves as policy director for the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, made the observation during a digital equity panel July 23 at Next Century Cities’ Regional Broadband Summit in Pittsburgh. In Cleveland, the high cost of broadband and poverty in some neighborhoods are just as likely to prevent residents from connecting to the internet as they are in rural America. Internet costing upward of $65 a month “might as well be on Mars for some people,” Callahan said. Digital redlining—the practice of service providers avoiding low-income areas when investing in broadband infrastructure—is to blame, panelists said.