How accessible is publicly available broadband access? Federal, state, and local governemnts leverage billions of dollars and partnerships with private-industry partners to make broadband more accessible and increase adoption rates at home. These programs often fund publicly accessible broadband through public schools and libraries to aid children and their families to get online in an effort to increase educational outcomes leading to more economic opportunities. A primary example is the FCC's E-RATE universal services program, which provides funds for obtaining and implementing broadband in school and libraries across urban and rural disctricts. In addition to these access points, private businesses often provide free wifi to customers. Dispite the many access points, challenges still exist: including hours of operation, transportation, location (and weather exposure), device availability, and purchase requirements.
As our society has moved online, we have begun the process of reproducing the current systems of inequality into the digital dimension. This is demonstrated by current broadband adoption rates and academic performance seen across income levels and racial groups. Some may suggest that the solution is as simple as giving every student a wifi-enabled laptop, but this far from a solution to a problem that exists within an interconnected ecosystem of hurdles built on current trends of oppression. In most surveys regarding broadband access, respondents often cite the high cost of fixed broadband access as the top deterrent. In addition to the monthly cost of service, there are additional fees and taxes and cost of devices (including computers, routers, etc.). In an article from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth found that 31.4 percent of household with an annual income lower than $50,000 with school-aged children lacked broadband access in their homes. Furthermore, regardless of income levels Black and Latinx children disproportionately lack access when compared to white and Asian children (Crampton, 2018). This creates a homework gap between those who have access at home to support their studies, and those who do not (Yankelevich et al., 2017). Considering that 94 percent of all school districts serving low-income students report assigning internet-based homeowrk (Shapiro, 2015), the need for broadband becomes alarming clear.
The scope of this research will be contained to Los Angeles County. Due to available amount of data within the county at the census block and tract level, I will be able to more directly indentify gaps in the spatial distribution of broadband and better understand other variables impacting a residents choice (or lack there of) to adopt broadband. Additionally, this scope allows me to identify public access points and other community assests to more effectively measure their placement and impact on the communities with the highest needs.
US Census Bureau
- Demographic data for Los Angeles County at the block level. Variables selected include age, sex, race, income, employment status, poverty status, gini index, etc.
Federal Communications Commission
- Form 477: Form is completed twice a year on June 30 and December 31. These datasets include number of providers available and technology type. This is valuale because many policymakers believe increased competition will result in lower prices for consumers and increase technological advancements.
- Fixed broadband deployment as of June 2020, link to SODA API
- Mobile broadband deployment as of June 2020, link to hosted dataset
- Staff Block Estimates: Based on public data from the US Census Bureau and Open Street Maps, this block level dataset estimates the housing unit, household and population counts for each census block. Will need to be filtered to only include the spatial scope.
CA Department of Education
- Using the California Department of Education's DataQuest, you can retrieve data on graduation/dropout rate, school attendance, and english learner reclassification.
Los Angeles County
- Public Internet Access shapefile includes latitude and longitude of libraries and community centers that offer public wifi. This list is not comprehensive of all points, it will need to be joined with other datasets that include elementary, middle, and high schools and adult education centers. A more comphrehensive list will demonstrate if broadband resources are equitably distributed.
- Guidance and tutoring programs shapefile While these locations are not considered to be public access points, I am interested to see if there are more programs in high adoption areas versus areas with limited access. Are there more programs around areas that need support/resources or in areas with greater advantages?
- School district boundaries allows us to aggregate block/tract level data for comparison accross the county.
After first identifying communities with an outstanding percentage of residents who completely lack internet access and those with limited access, I will then map the public access points in relation to these communtiies to assess the proximity and quality of resources through distance, available services (available computers, hotspot loan program, etc.), and populations served. From there, the perspective will scale to the school district level to understand the larger trends in Los Angeles County in relation educational attainment and future economic opportunities.
While I expect to find outcomes similar to those mentioned above, I hope to gain a more holistic picture of those who lack broadband access. It is important to understand the broader set of hurdles put before spacific communities (for example: banking status, age, citizenship, household size) to design better interventions such as more targeted access points, and more informed investments in entitlements and infrastructure to increase adoption at home. Admittedly, just because a family gains interenet access does not means all needs have been addressed, what it can provide is opportunities within the new economy by increasing access to education, healthcare, and job opportunities.