Internet Access Has Never Been More Important — and Unequal

Black Canary is an op-ed column sounding the alarm against enduring injustice in America.
Illustration of young woman working at home
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Access to the internet has never been equal. That digital divide, like many inequalities in America, is fueled by capitalism. Through a lack of regulation, broadband communication has come under the control of a handful of monopolies.

The need to address internet accessibility has become even more pressing, with millions of homes serving as both office and classroom during the coronavirus pandemic. While the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has made efforts to bridge this divide, their focus on a market solution has, in my opinion, been a hindrance to ensuring access for all. It is important that we explore other alternatives to bridging the digital divide that do not rely solely on government actions or on the expectation that corporations will do what’s right.

The FCC, which oversees broadband and the telecommunications industry, approved a program in June that would award $16 billion to companies that meet FCC guidelines to expand broadband to rural areas. As Reuters reported, the auction will begin in October and over 10 years will pay companies monthly for providing high-speed internet and broadband to rural communities.

This seems to go along with the FCC’s overall approach of using its power to “help the market” close the digital divide. The FCC has already spent billions on similar grant programs that allocate funds to the private sector to build the necessary infrastructure needed for broadband. This form of social corporatism tends to favor corporations over people. In a 2019 Washington Post op-ed where she discussed her $85 billion broadband plan, then-presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren claimed that the FCC “shoveled” billions to private Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who have provided the “bare minimum” in return.

The FCC’s current focus also seems to be mostly on rural communities that are too isolated for major providers to bother with, rather than on all people across the country who simply can’t afford access to the internet. In written testimony before Congress, Gigi B. Sohn, a distinguished fellow at Georgetown University's Institute for Technology Law & Policy, stated that Black and Hispanic households would be more likely to subscribe to broadband if it were more affordable. She also said that they are more likely to use free broadband services at libraries and coffee shops. With so many families out of work and struggling to pay their rent during the pandemic-induced recession, covering both internet and cell phone service is a tall order.

Back in May, Teen Vogue reported on a high school senior whose family had to suspend their internet before her AP exams after her father lost his construction job. Anely Solis, a mother of five in Los Angeles, told Reuters that she used the hotspot from her cell phone so her children could attend their online classes. “We have to pay rent, bills, food. We don't make enough to pay $80, $100 for internet,” Solis said. “I can use that money to pay for other things that they need."

What kind of extra stress are students and workers being put through while trying to find fast, dependable internet service? While most coffee shops and libraries are still unavailable because of COVID-19 restrictions, what alternatives are there?

Having a free and fair internet that respects privacy is important to having a free society. Imagine if instead of giving billions to corporations to expand broadband we used that money to fund alternatives that empowered communities. One way of doing that could be by deploying mesh networks. A mesh network allows for communities to be their own internet service provider in a way that is different from the current centralized infrastructure that dominates ISPs in America. By taking this decentralized approach, it is more protected from disruption, whether by natural causes like a hurricane or government censorship. As NYC Mesh, a network in New York City describes it, “community members ('nodes') have wireless routers mounted on a rooftop or balcony to connect to other nodes, forming a network. Our network, in turn, peers (connects) with many other networks at an internet exchange point (IXP), providing direct access to the internet without the intermediary of a commercial internet service provider.” By using nodes (a wifi router could be a node) and connecting them between homes, you create a system where you share access by connecting the network directly to an IXP, instead of relying on an ISP to provide that access for you.

People’s Open Network and NYC Mesh are just some of the mesh networks that already exist in the United States. But mesh networks have been a thing all around the world for some time among rural communities, anti-capitalists working towards autonomy, and privacy rights activists.

With the coronavirus pandemic, we see a real, immediate need to expand access to the internet. The beauty of mesh networks is that we don’t have to wait for the government to provide it for us — we can do it ourselves. It would be great if some of those billions of dollars the FCC is granting to major ISPs were going to help communities set up their own mesh network, but that isn’t the case.

Community self-reliance is key to survival during turbulent times. To learn more about how to set up an open-source mesh network click here.

Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Distance Learning During Coronavirus Worsens Race, Class Inequality in Education

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