Frustrated by internet service providers, cities and schools push for more data

Months into the school year, the one thing many families have learned is how much they rely on a functioning internet connection to access remote classrooms. So education equality experts who are trying to chip away at the many challenges families are struggling with through the pandemic are starting by simply trying to identify which students aren't connected to make sure those households have access to affordable packages. But even though most internet service providers, or ISPs, offer affordable packages, they refuse to say how many customers they have signed up for the programs. Five of the country's largest ISPs, including Charter (also known as Spectrum), AT&T, Verizon and Lumen (formerly CenturyLink), in addition to Comcast all declined to provide information about how many low-income customers had signed up for their programs. They all said the information was proprietary. That is forcing some city officials and internet equality groups to take data-gathering into their own hands.