Boston City Council takes up equitable access to broadband

Boston (MA) City Councilors held a hearing on the need for better, more equitable broadband connection citywide and improved digital equity in the city. They also discussed changes to existing federal assistance for internet access. The hearing was called due to concerns over the ability of all Boston residents, regardless of where in the city they live and how much money they make, to access reliable internet connections. These concerns, which advocates said existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, were only driven home by the business and school shutdowns that left much of the day-to-day workings of the city online. The struggle for some Bostonians is ongoing. 2019 data from the American Community Survey found that 13.4 percent of households in the Greater Boston area had no internet connection in their home. Over five years of data, that number gradually decreased from nearly 23 percent of Greater Boston households in 2015. Panelists supported free Wi-Fi initiatives as a part of a broader network of connection options but not necessarily as a primary solution. Speakers at the hearing also discussed the possibility of municipal broadband, where the broadband network is owned and operated fully or partially by a local government.