It can be difficult to navigate life in Los Angeles without a smartphone or access to a strong Wi-Fi connection, especially since the pandemic deepened our reliance on technology. Yet thousands of Angelenos remain disconnected from the digital world, making it challenging to access social services, apply for jobs and schedule medical appointments.
Most area libraries, including L.A. city libraries, already offer free internet services for residents. Some are now getting into the broadband market.If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report.
Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.And low-income households often end up paying disproportionately high rates for service, since there's little commercial competition in their neighborhoods. Digital equity advocates say the issue urgently requires public intervention. That’s because, they say, the internet has become essential for everyday modern life, and should be treated as a public utility like water and electricity.“Now we can clearly see that without access to good, reliable, affordable broadband people are really at a disadvantage and are not able to meet their basic needs,” said Cristal Mojica, who leads the digital equity initiative for the Michelson 20MM Foundation.‘The private sector has failed’: Why Huntington Park plans to launch its own internet service It found that the end of a federal broadband subsidy in May had left many people unable to afford basic internet,"affecting their ability to work, access healthcare, and meet essential needs." In California, nearly 3 million households were enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program, which gave eligible people $30 off their monthly internet bill. It ran out of money this year after Congress failed to renew funding. At the time, most major internet providers promised to continue offering affordable ratesthat cities build out more publicly-funded broadband services. It points to the city of Santa Monica, which launched its own citywide fiber-optic network in 2002, as a leading example.“Municipally-owned and community broadband projects are not driven by profit making. Yes, they have to be a viable business but their main responsibility is to serve the community in an equitable way,” said Mojica.Three groups recently won a combined $96 million to launch their own networks in Crenshaw, Huntington Park and in the Gateway Cities on the southeast side of L.A. County. It’s part of the state’s last-mile grant fund, which is meant to expand internet access in digitally disadvantaged communities. L.A. County is launching its own high-speed broadband service aimed at low-income residents in South L.A., East L.A. and Boyle Heights, with The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA won a $25K grant this summer from the Michelson 20MM Foundation to launch its own community broadband project in the Pico-Union neighborhood. The project will “empower” immigrants and low-income families with digital literacy training and job opportunities.The issue of low-income residents being offered expensive, low quality service has become known as digital discrimination. Mojica said advocates need to make sure people know about digital equity and what to do when they face this discrimination in the marketplace. Only 39% of survey respondents were able to confidently identify what digital discrimination means. “It can being offered the same service as someone else at a higher cost or it can be paying the same amount as someone else for subpar service,” Mojica said.the nation's first city-level digital discrimination policy. It creates a new way for residents to submit discrimination complaints against internet service providers.Since then, about a half dozen cities on the southeast side of the county, including Maywood, South Gate and Bell Gardens Mojica says the group will partner with lawmakers to re-introduce a bill next year to tackle digital discrimination at the state level.Right now, you can help protect LAist's mission to provide local reporting to all in our community. Donate for the first time or increase your monthly donation to have a positive impact on your ability to access independent and trusted journalism.Following scathing audit, LA County supervisor proposes moving homeless services under direct county control The audit's findings highlight long-standing issues at LAHSA and raise new questions about how large pools of public money are being spent.L.A. politicians tried to resist President-elect Donald Trump’s policies during his last term. What can they do to fight this time?A fast-burning fire in the mountains was pushed by exceptionally strong and dry Santa Ana winds, burning thousands of acres, destroying homes and forcing evacuations.As an OC supervisor, Michelle Steel awarded a $1.2M pandemic meals contract to her campaign mail printer The contract Steel directed to her campaign mail vendor in 2020 charged taxpayers about $24 per meal, three times as much as vendors charged in two other Orange County supervisor districts, according to an LAist review of contracts.This little-known alien abduction case happened in LA’s backyard. Your guide to the ‘UFO hotbed’ in Big Tujunga CanyonAirTalk Host Larry Mantle's favorite LA books of 2024 'Robin Hood in reverse.' O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do resigns and will plead guilty to bribery conspiracy charge The wife of an OC supervisor’s aide was hired for a $275,000 contract. The work was never turned in, county says
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