The outbreak of COVID-19, known as the coronavirus has exposed problems the U.S has been sitting on for a long time. With the recent closures of schools across the country, educators are quickly learning that as they move toward a remote system to engage with their students during the quarantine, many do not have access to wireless internet at home.
Glastonbury 2020: Festival cancelled due to coronavirus
It’s hard to imagine that in the age of popular platforms like TikTok and Instagram that there are young kids and adults with no internet access; for a large majority of low-income residents, that’s exactly the case. While the internet offers a lifeline for many to continue life as normal during this global pandemic, for others, it limits their movement even more. Depending on where you live, broadband may not be readily available to you. According to the FCC, more than 21 million Americans do not have access to high-speed Internet, according to the Federal Communications Commission’s latest data. The numbers have improved in recent years, though the gaps remain pervasive, despite heavy investment by government regulators and private companies.
“With coronavirus, we’re about to expose just how challenging our digital divide is, and just how unequal access to broadband is,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat on the Federal Communications Commission, to The Washington Post. “We’re going to have a reckoning.”
Source: Report: Coronavirus Exposes America’s Internet Inequality Problem
Recent Comments