Council Members Call for Free Wi-Fi Study

Ald. Aram Ayalon (D-3) and Ald. Iris Sanchez (D-3) are calling for information on providing free Wi-Fi in low income areas of the city.

The two City Council members represent the Third Ward, which includes the city’s lowest income neighborhoods. They have submitted a Council petition calling on city departments to provide report, “Listing of cost of adding cables to provide free Wi-Fi in low income areas within the City (North Oak, Arch Street area, etc.).”

The report is also to include, “Information regarding the exploration of cooperating with other municipalities with significant low income population to jointly provide free Wi-Fi,” and, “Information regarding the exploration of grants and state support in providing free Wi-Fi to low income communities.”

The petition is similar to one introduced by Ayalon in 2018.

“Wi-Fi is available to those who can afford it,” Ayalon said in 2018, “but many people do not have access to it.”

A 2015 analysis by the Pew Research Center of what is being called the, “homework gap,” found that,

some 5 million households with school-age children do not have high-speed internet service at home. Low-income households – and especially black and Hispanic ones – make up a disproportionate share of that 5 million.

The report submitted by city Support Services Department in December of 2018 in response to the earlier petition cited some possible unit costs for equipment, but said that the exact cost of the infrastructure to extend wi-fi coverage would need an analysis to determine.

The petition exploring free Wi-Fi would require reports from city departments to the City Council by April 16, 2020.

The petition is on the agenda of the Council meeting tonight, March 25, 2020.