Getting internet access to everyone during a pandemic is not an easy job

A Q&A with Chris Mitchell, director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Community Broadband Networks Initiative. 

Christopher Mitchell: There’s a lot of people who are signing up for service who didn’t have it before, or maybe they’re going to a better provider. We’re seeing in areas that have one or more cases of the virus that some of the [internet service providers] are seeing record sign-ups, in some cases twice the previous record of a daily number of new customers. That, unfortunately, means that we need ISPs to have protocols for connecting people, because the number of service providers have actually stopped going into people’s homes and doing new connections while they figure out how to handle this. We will need to find a way in which we can do new connections, because I think this connectivity is just going to become more and more important.

Molly Wood: So you’re saying it is literally spurring people who had not had broadband access before to sign up? But that they might still just be waiting until this is over — whenever that is — for it to be installed?

Mitchell: Yes, that appears to be the case. I think this is even more important, because many ISPs — from the biggest companies to small, local companies — are finding ways of doing 60-day or 90-day free periods for low-income families to get signed up. I think that’s really important for families that right now might be having to leave their home in order to go to a community Wi-Fi spot. We don’t want people to leave the home unless it’s essential, so if we can get people connected in the home, that would be the ideal situation.