ConnectHome aims to close the digital divide

How do we close the "digital divide" - the gap between broadband internet connected families and those left out in the cold?

With ConnectHome, a new initiative announced Wednesday by President Obama to expand high speed broadband service to poverty-income students and families in Philadelphia, Camden and elsewhere, POTUS has lined up a whole lotta love and help from his friends in the public and private sector.

"This is one of those "it takes a village situations," said Brigitte Daniels, vice president of Wilco Communications, a minority owned, Fort Washington based provider of discounted cable services for Philadelphia public housing residents and wireless internet to "low income zipcode" households citywide.

"The internet has been reclassified as a utility," said Daniels. "The principal of net neutrality has been firmly established, as it must be. All kinds of content including TV, is or will be coming to the web. So everybody needs to climb into the sandbox for a project like ConnectHome to succeed - private industry as well as government, community groups, content creators, delivery companies, the people who teach digital literacy . . . ."

Following on the heels of the ConnectED initiative to wire 99 percent of K-12 students to high speed Internet in their classrooms and libraries over the next five years, ConnectHome now aims to guarantee those students will also have access to high speed Internet when they get home. In particular, the program targets kids living in "assisted housing units."

According to new research from the President's Council of Economic Advisors, a computer is owned by two-thirds of households in the lowest-income quintile, but less than half have a home internet subscription, creating a "homework gap" for hardworking students who can't complete their assignments.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will take a leadership position in ConnectHome. New rulemaking will require HUD-funded rehab projects and new residential construction to support broadband internet connectivity.

And communities will be able to spend portions of Choice Neighborhood Implementation Grants on broadband initiatives and connectivity.

HUD will likely prioritize  funding  to the  designated (in 2014) Promise Zones – including Mantua in Philadelphia and Camden City, Daniels hears.

As the exclusive cable service provider (since 2001) to the Philadelphia Housing Authority and active participant in the KeySpot Initiative - a 2011 Federal stimulus program to enhance digital literacy and accessiblity - Wilco expects to play a big part in the ConnectHome program.

Wilco gets its cable feeds from Comcast "but charges our customers 30 percent less," said Daniels. Working in partnership with the non-profit People's Emergency Center and Clear Communications, Wilco has been marketing and installing a $14.95 a month wireless internet service "available to any low income zipcode resident in the city, not just to students - the limitation with Comcast's $10 a month Internet Essentials program. Our service also helps seniors, the disabled, everyone."

Clear wireless internet service hasn't earned the best grades from users, "but now that Sprint has taken over the company and is upgrading the service to LTE, it will be a much more useful and competitive option in the fall, with 10 Mbps service down, 8 Mbps up," said Daniels.

Sprint was just one of the several communications partners announced as a ConnectHome partner.

Google's commitment will be hard to beat.  In Google Fiber markets (including the ConnectHome cities of Atlanta, Durham, Kansas City and Nashville), Google Fiber will offer "$0 monthly home Internet service" to residents in select public housing authority projects and will partner with community organizations on computer labs and digital literacy programming.

Comcast's fee could also go to zip (or close to it), if the Federal Communications Commission decides that low income families now eligible for "Lifeline" phone service can allocate their $9.25 subsidy instead for internet.

Who else will be playing in the sandbox?

College Board, working with Khan Academy, will offer students and families in HUD housing free, online SAT practice resources.

Age of Learning, Inc will make its ABCmouse.com online early learning curriculum available free to families in HUD housing in targeted ConnectHome communities (27 in all, plus one tribal nation.)

Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the American Library Association will provide digital literary programming and resources to public housing residents.

The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) will produce and distribute new educational, children's and digital literary content via local PBS stations tailored for ConnectHome participants.