Internet service providers should give free service in rural Kentucky to shrink digital divide

Governor Beshear continues to tell us to stay “Safe at Home”, and he’s right. For many that means a lot more time on the internet to work remotely, keep kids up to date on school assignments, access telemedicine, tune into public meetings, shop for essentials, and stream something to give our minds a break from the crisis.

For too many in Eastern Kentucky, that’s not an option. The pandemic has revealed even more starkly how deep and wide the digital divide is. We know there are huge gaps in physical infrastructure needed for broadband. But even where infrastructure exists, far too many cannot afford access.

While we must continue to build new infrastructure, that can’t be done fast enough to respond to this emergency. There is one thing, though, that could be done now to help level the playing field for rural people: Flip the switch. Internet service providers should immediately make basic internet access available, for free, to everyone in Kentucky during the state of emergency.

Those who can afford it can continue to pay for faster service and more bandwidth. But those struggling to survive this crisis need the essential lifeline of internet service. Ideally, providers would recognize this moment of opportunity, a chance to show some heart and do the right thing. They might even gain more customers in the long run. If they won’t do this on their own, then government subsidies and mandates should be brought into play as is being done in other critical economic sectors.

The Community Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky (CEDIK) recently explored the digital divide in Kentucky’s 120 counties. They calculated a digital divide index score between 0 and 100, with higher scores indicating a higher divide. They included rates of people living in poverty, too, and there is correlation between highest digital divide and highest rates of poverty.

For example, 35.6 percent of people in Harlan County are living below the poverty line. Their digital divide score is nearly 80. Perry County scores almost 57, the lowest divide of the five top coal-producing counties in Eastern Kentucky. There, 26.2 percent live below poverty.

This calls us to think differently about how to ensure every home has access to the critical utility of internet in a region where disposable income is slim to non-existent. Solutions won’t be as simple as extending high-speed fiber lines out from county seats and offering a plug in to every home, even though that is also necessary and should be done.

Thinking differently could look like internet providers flipping the switch, and giving free basic internet to all homes that can access it. It could look like rural electric cooperatives and municipalities taking on internet as a service they provide in addition to electricity, and extending fiber lines throughout their areas. A good model is People’s Rural Telephone Cooperative in Jackson County, which extended high-speed fiber internet to all their customers years ago. Mountain Telephone in West Liberty also upgraded systems to offer high-speed internet to clients in 10 counties.

Even in the best of times, Eastern Kentucky was behind in broadband connectivity. But now, unjust systems that have disproportionately harmed people who are poor and working class, and people of color the most, are exposed in stark relief. We can no longer ignore arbitrarily enforced inequities that prevent our region from moving forward into the brighter future it deserves and is owed.

Let this crisis teach us: When one of us is intentionally left behind, we all suffer as a result. We must act now to ensure Eastern Kentucky no longer lags behind, so that this region can flourish. One way among many, is to let everyone have access to internet, despite where they live or how much they make.

Peter Hille is the president of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) with offices in Berea, Hazard and Paintsville. info@maced.org | 859- 986-2373