THIS SHOULD BE EMBARASSING. For all of us. The announcement Stateside that the Federal Communications Commission is teaming up with the cable industry and many others down south to offer low-income households access to computers, training and cheaper broadband ($9.95 a month), shows the Americans have it right.
The digital divide is not a rural-urban gap but a cost/knowledge/education chasm, regardless of where you live.
Many Americans can’t afford the $40-or-more per month it costs to get broadband at home, can’t afford a computer in the first place, and without broadband – as we all have come to realize – those families will be left out of the interconnected future we all love to boast about. Plus, because they aren’t connected, these families may not realize how quickly they’re being left behind. And that’s not just a bad thing for those families, it’s terrible for the overall economy if so many are left out.
We face the exact same issues here in Canada and thus far, we’re not doing a thing about it.
The “Connect 2 Compete” program announced Wednesday by the FCC, the National Cable Telecommunications Association and other groups, extends an initial program the U.S. Commission began with Comcast in September. In a nutshell, if a family qualifies for help under the National School Lunch Program, and isn’t already a broadband customer, they can sign up to get not only a broadband connection for $9.95 a month (with no installation charges, a low-cost or free modem and a minimum 1 Mbps download speed promise), but access to other agencies and programs offering discounted computers, security software and training on how to use their new connectivity, too.
Computer refurbishing company Redemtech, for example, will offer those families laptops or PCs for $150, with 90 days of tech support. Microsoft has said it will provide new computers for eligible school-lunch families for $250. Best Buy is committing its 20,000-member Geek Squad to the educational campaign.
“Research shows the barriers to broadband adoption involve a complex mix of digital literacy, perceived relevance of online content, and access to low-cost computers and Internet service. NCTA and the cable industry is participating in ‘Connect to Compete’ because it attacks each of these barriers of which cost is only one factor,” reads the press release from the NCTA. “(C)able providers will work with other C2C partners as part of a larger overall effort to increase adoption.”
The three-year-long program will launch nationally in the States concurrent with the 2012-13 school year. The NCTA estimates that there are more than 10 million NSLP free-lunch students in approximately 5.5 million homes that currently do not subscribe to broadband. “Broadband is an increasingly integral part of getting a quality education, yet too few of the most needy kids have the service at home,” adds the press release.
And what have our government agencies and the ISP industry done in Canada so far for needy Canadian kids? That’s right. Nothing. The Federal Government’s Broadband Canada Fund doesn’t count, by the way. Its rollout was awfully slow, directed towards companies building broadband to rural regions and did nothing about providing affordable connectivity to low-income families.
As an industry, we should now be embarrassed into acting. As the FCC pointed out in the press conference in Washington today, this would not be happening without the buy-in of the cable industry there. So, where do our ISPs stand on this issue? Where’s Canada’s $9.95 broadband plan? Where’s the educational campaign on the benefits of citizens being able to log on?
Now, before anyone starts casting stones only in the direction of the government or the CRTC, look inward first. There is no reason why the federal government or our Commission has to lead this (though they certainly could. Industry Canada should own this issue, actually). A Connect 2 Compete Canada can come from a company or a group of companies – and this issue needs leadership far more than it needs money. Besides, there are no taxpayer dollars whatsoever involved in the U.S. Connect 2 Compete plan. The companies are involved because it’s the right thing to do.
There is absolutely no reason why we can not do something here in Canada, and on the same timeline.
Such a program is an absolute no-brainer, slam-dunk, from a business perspective anyway. We’re not talking about substituting a bunch of $40/month subscriptions for one that’s $9.95. These Connect 2 Compete customers will be newcomers who previously couldn’t afford broadband. We’re talking about homes already in the ISP footprints which currently are generating no Internet revenue.
According to research done by telecom consultant Mark Goldberg, who has worked hard for many months trying to get his One Million Computers program off the ground in Canada (and also had a lot to say about Wednesday's FCC announcement), more than 95% of Canadian households with a computer have internet access, but one in five Canadian households don’t have a computer. “This is highly correlated with income,” he adds.
He found that half of the households in the lowest income quintile (about 2.5 million households) have no computer while 19 out of 20 households in the top income quintile have a computer – and this problem exists in both urban and rural markets.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2010 21% of Canadian households didn’t have Internet access at home. However, while the vast majority (97%) of households with incomes of $87,000 or more, had home Internet access, just 54% of households with incomes of $30,000 or less had it.
That’s likely over 500,000 Canadian households who can’t afford broadband at home. That’s a lot of kids struggling to do their homework and a lot of families without access to online health care.
Goldberg also points out the many hundreds, if not thousands of PCs and laptops that may go to recycling every year just from the companies in the cable, radio, television and telecom business could be repurposed and sold or given to low-income families. Agencies such as Mississauga’s Renewed Computer Technology (www.rcto.ca) is set up to do exactly this.
Imagine hooking up thousands of families with a refurbished computer from RCTO and a $9.95 broadband connection. How many lives could be changed?
While Canada doesn’t have a National School Lunch Program, Goldberg figures families who may be able to qualify for a low-cost broadband plan might be qualified through the National Child Benefit supplement program which specifically targets households with kids with less than $24,000 annual income.
“Roughly 100 million Americans aren’t online at home,” FCC chairman Genachowski added today. “That’s one-third of our population – a 68% adoption rate. Compare that to South Korea and Singapore where adoption rates top 90%. It used to be that being disconnected was an inconvenience. Not any more.”
For example, with 80% of the Fortune 500 companies now reporting they post job openings only online, how is someone without in-home connectivity going to job search after their local job centre or library closes?
“One study found that savvy consumers who are broadband subscribers can save more than $7,000 a year from discounts available exclusively online. Getting all Americans online is key to our nation’s economic success. The online marketplace is the new Main Street in America,” added Genachowski. “Broadband is now a basic requirement to participate in the 21st century economy.”
No one on this side of the border would disagree. So how are we going to help those who can’t afford it?
Over the next few days and weeks, we at Cartt.ca will be asking this very question of every senior executive and senior government bureaucrat we can. We’ll let you know what they say.
We encourage our readers to do the same and let us know what you hear.
