As the state rushes to address the digital divide separating urban and rural Arkansans by using federal dollars for broadband infrastructure projects, another digital divide exists within urban communities.
“In cities like Little Rock and North Little Rock, it’s not so much an issue of having adequate broadband, but it’s an issue of the affordability, of being able to access that and having the educational tools to be able to use the online platforms that are available,” former Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola told Arkansas Business in a recent interview. He is now part of the Kauffman Foundation’s Mayors Council, which works to support increased access to the tools and resources entrepreneurs need to be successful, including broadband.
There are economic and educational benefits to closing both divides.
Businesses can use the internet to retain and grow their customer base and conduct online sales, while the nation needs a workforce that has the skills for a digital future.
Another issue for city dwellers is internet speeds, Stodola said. Many have only one option for internet service and that service is slow, making it “very, very difficult to be able to conduct a lot of the activities that we would like our students and our citizens to be able to do,” he said.
COVID-19 exposed these disparities. In some elementary school attendance zones, 1 in 3 families didn’t have home internet when schools closed and turned to online learning, said Jay Barth, Little Rock’s first chief education officer.
Cities and school districts set up Wi-Fi hotspots so that those kids could access high-speed broadband from their schools’ parking lots, but Barth called that a short-term “Band-aid” solution.
“We’ve really got to have permanent fixes that really are truly affordable, and we’ve got a lot of families for whom affordability is a clear issue,” he said. “I think it is undeniable that high-quality broadband is as important as power and water as a utility in 21st century America. And we’ve got to really understand the fundamental nature of this utility, but it really goes beyond just having affordable broadband. It’s also digital literacy.”
Barth said people of all ages need to learn how to use the internet effectively to attain their educational and economic goals, and to engage with their government.
“And, finally, we’ve got to have the right kind of devices in place. So it really is all three of those things,” he said, noting that screens larger than smartphones are sometimes necessary to complete important tasks.
Public-private partnerships are critical to closing the divide, both men said.
One example is the federal Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, which offers discounts on monthly internet access bills and on devices to low-income households by subsidizing providers. But that’s another short-term solution.
Another example is the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development’s pilot program called ConnectHome, which ran from 2015-18. Little Rock participated in that.
Stodola said the program brought affordable broadband service to hundreds of residents of Metropolitan Housing Alliance properties. The city collaborated with Best Buy and Comcast to provide that access as well as digital literacy education. Computer labs were set up, and families could buy computers for $50 apiece.
Stodola also cited America’s New Business Plan, which provides policymakers with research-informed solutions to the problems faced by entrepreneurs that prohibit them from starting and growing their businesses. One recommendation it includes is creating and deploying a national broadband plan that would provide fast, reliable and affordable service to all. The plan is sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation and was developed by Start Us Up, a national coalition of entrepreneurship support organizations, nonprofits, university centers and more.
“I do think we’re at a moment where we have a deep awareness how important this is because of COVID,” Barth said. “And we’ve got actors at the federal, state and local levels who are all deeply interested in getting over some of those historic hurdles.”
Stodola said he believes “it’ll be the equalizer in the future — between urban and rural and between lower-income neighborhoods and upper-income neighborhoods.”
Barth thinks the digital divide will be closed this decade. “But I do think it is a matter of years. I think we can make greater strides more quickly in urban areas because we don’t have the infrastructure needs that are quite as dire as in rural Arkansas,” he said.
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