Oakland is ready to receive $15 million from California to shut gaps in local web speeds – a grant that faced objections from industry giants Comcast and AT&T, who argued the town doesn’t have a slower web connection than another place.
A bunch of advocates had struggled throughout much of the pandemic to persuade state technology officials that Oakland deserved a bigger share of the federal COVID-19 response funding for broadband improvements.
But recent funding announced this week goals to fund the “last mile” of fibre optic connectivity by connecting neglected areas to a wider backbone along major highways.
The group, called OaklandUndivided, fought in the course of the pandemic to persuade California authorities that East Oakland neighborhoods were being neglected in existing broadband expansion funding plans.
With the brand new funding, Oakland joins the ranks of other communities classified as “underserved” by the California Public Utilities Commission, including San Francisco ($10 million), Fremont ($7 million) and Plumas County ($7 million).
These are communities in Northern California which might be “just a short walk or drive from the development of some of the world's most famous high technologies,” but “they are on the wrong side of the digital divide,” CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds said, in response to a press release before voting for the funding.
In their written objections to the $15 million grant, Comcast and AT&T argued that 100% of the Oakland neighborhoods targeted for improvements were covered by high-speed web.
But utility officials found that the providers' web sites listed a number of the addresses included of their maps as “not receiving fiber service.” They also noted that “many of the locations complained of by the providers were outside” the intended service area.
Oakland Connect, a civic organization led by a former city school teacher, had rejected the objections with reports that Oakland's Internet connection was slower than the speeds advertised to the general public by Comcast and AT&T.
Tests by technology company HubbleIQ found that greater than a 3rd of 8,000 addresses had slow download speeds, in response to data seen by this news organization.
Young students in East Oakland told this news organization in previous interviews that they’d trouble accessing the web when the pandemic forced entire families to remain home. One teenager, a highschool student named Santiago Preciado, said he “missed a significant portion of eighth grade because of it.”
These inequalities, that are also noticed by teachers and mentors in after-school care, often go unmentioned in political discourse in Oakland – but they seem to contribute to the performance gap between different neighborhoods.
“This is an information justice issue,” said Patricia Wells, who heads the Oakland Housing Authority. “All people, regardless of income, have the right to access reliable and affordable high-speed internet, just like other essential utilities like water and electricity.”
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