More Help Needed on Digital Divide, Pai and Others Say, Praising Cox Efforts
More work remains to further narrow the digital divide, a Cox Communications event heard Monday, even as speakers praised the cable ISP's stepped-up efforts. "Bridging the digital divide should be, in my view, a national mission," said FCC Chairman Ajit…
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Pai. He seeks "a kick-starter for a national conversation" and said Cox's Connect2Compete low-cost broadband for the poor helps: It's "a bold initiative that is tackling the issue of broadband affordability." More than 400,000 low-income Americans at one point have been or still are connected via the plan. That's "almost two Topekas," the Kansas native said of the city there, to laughter. Cox's promise to spend $20 million over the next year on Connect2Compete is "going to make a ton of difference," said Zach Leverenz, founder-chair of EveryoneOn, which helps administer the program. "There’s more still to be done." He noted many millions of Americans can't afford broadband, and they are mostly minorities. Connect2Compete has boosted speeds and added digital literacy tools and has tech centers in boys and girls clubs, with the product targeting low-income families with school-age kids, said Cox President Pat Esser. "It's that multitiered access that is critical" to help close the broadband gap, he said. Cox's Connect2Compete and a similar product, Comcast's Internet Essentials, cost users about $10 monthly, spokespeople for the companies told us. Connect2Compete is in about 70,000 households, the Cox spokesman said. IE has connected 6 million low-income people from 1.5 million households to broadband, Comcast's representative noted, citing figures released in August. That makes it the top such U.S. program.