OneRouge Community Check-In - Week 113

Week #113

The focus of the conversation is a continuation on our 9 Drivers of Poverty series on "The Digital Divide: It Multiplies Inequality" with a focus on what the Digital Divide really means, who is truly impacted, and the challenges the entire state faces in closing it.

Enlight, Unite, & Ignite!

Quick Links: Notes, Zoom Chat, Community Announcements

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Speaker Notes

Veneeth Iyengar (Louisiana State Executive Director for Broadband Development & Connectivity, ConnectLA)

In late 2019 the Governor recognized that addressing the digital divide was critical for Louisiana so he created the Broadband for everyone initiative. Two representatives: Avoiles and Ouachita Parishes, both created legislation to create this office. The need for coordination between state and federal agencies. In early 2021, that’s when the governor approached me. Made a three year commitment and agreed to implement a staff. As a culture and an office we think of ourselves as a public start up. I report to Jay Dardenne. He has held many high office positions. He understands the politics, the policy and the finance side of things. Our office actually sits in the commissioners office. Communicating complex topics to folks who are not typically used to getting that information. It’s a lot more difficult for people in rural areas to understand how to build a digital road than a physical one. Our efforts in Louisiana are recognized from the feds as having one if not the best broadband office in the country. They would never publicly admit it, but our speed and ability to execute and take action on feedback has been consistently recognized.

Tracy White (Senior Public Affairs Specialist, Cox Communications)

Cox is the nation's largest privately owned telecommunications company and we were founded by educators, so the digital divide is something we’re trying to solve for. We were all taken for a ride in 2020. For the last decade before the pandemic we were pushing the Cox Connect to Compete service. We wanted to connect to families with K-12 students because they depended on the internet. Then in 2020, everything shifted, and we were able to get devices into and for individuals who needed it. There were about 403,000 households without the internet. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity. It is very important for us to get together and penetrate these areas where there is no access and the infrastructure is not there, or affordability is not there. We’re now calling it digital equity. We’re looking forward to having more discussions about this. I oversee the charitable giving for the region. I’m working with groups to spread this message so more people can access the internet.

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

Stupid question: almost everybody has a smart phone. when you say no equipment, do you mean laptops/desktops???

We know people are accessing through their mobile phones, but we mean actual hardware people can access the internet with.

Veneeth - 1.6 million people in Louisiana lack access to the internet for some reason: access, affordability, literacy, device. We’re going to make the first significant wave of announcement in the next few weeks. On the infrastructure bill, we’re going to get 1.1 to 1.2 billion dollars. We’re going to make sure the unserved population in Louisiana has access to it but has access to high speed internet that’s affordable. Once we focus on the unserved, we’re going to focus on the underserved. Then once we take care of the underserved we’re going to focus on community anchors like hospitals, etc. We’re not going to see that until Q1 next year. We’re going to still go through a grant mechanism to incetize companies. We’ve been really pushing the affordable connectivity program. 290,000 households that get $30 off each month on bills, or 100 towards a device. On a per capita basis we’re number 1, but we also have a lot of people that need it which isn’t good. On digital literacy, we think there are between 470,000 people that lack basic computer literacy. In highly urbanized areas, you’re going to have higher numbers of folks that lack basic literacy. In East Carroll, the numbers are low, but percentage of population is high. We’re going to focus on a literacy program in five parishes, where we fund the libraries to train digital navigators to teach basic digital literacy. The last is on digital equity and inclusion. The infrastructure bill that gets all the glam is the big dollars coming to the state for access. What was included in that bill was something called the Digital Equity Act. It’s 2.75 billion dollars. We were the first states to submit our letter of intent. The purpose of that DEA is to establish the state’s first digital equity plan. It’s going to involve a tremendous amount of stakeholder involvement. What happens is once we have developed that plan, we submit that to the feds and once it’s approved it locks in money to get it started. We will see that money in Q3 of next year. There’s a very clear distinction between digital equity and digital inclusion. We’re going to certify that every unserved structure has access to high speed affordable internet. There are going to be so many jobs created because of this. How do we make sure that folks who have been recently incarcerated have the ability to be part of this? These are not minimum wage jobs. These are $25 an hour jobs. We are going to need 5,000 of these folks over the next five years. We really need from a workforce perspective, but to develop a plan starting in the summer of next year.

Tracy - Cox joined 19 other service providers at the White House in May. For us we need to expand our programs to get to folks that need access to these programs. We came to an agreement to lower the price of our services so that people can qualify for it for free. That looks like anyone who is applying for any kind of government assistance they could qualify for a subsidy. We’ve dropped the price to $30. People can apply that credit to their monthly bill.

Rinaldi Jacobs - No human left behind is the pillar of what we need right now. Cybersecurity as an example, if you’re in Tensas parish, you can’t get a cybersecurity job because you can’t access the internet. Our schools should be open year round. They shouldn’t close during summer when they need the assistance year round. We need to push for relocation of oil and gas tax. K-12 computer science education. At some point, we’re going to have to reconcile the infrastructure for digital.

Veneeth - Hurricane Ida significantly knocked down more holes than Katrina. We recognize that when Ida happened several commissioners from the federal commission came down and spent time with the governor and first responders. We feel this is a one time shot at this money. I want to work myself out of a job. For the 26 parishes south of I-10, if we’re smart with the money we’re getting, we may have money to make it a requirement that any ISP that wants our money to go into those areas, has to put that stuff underground. We’re working with the governors team on flood patterns. Hurricanes are not loosing the strength as soon as they make landfall.

Dead Spots - That may speak to satellite coverage. If we’re smart enough with the way we spend our money, we may have enough to build cell towers in those dead zones. There are pockets in north EBR that are hyper rural. I talked to Mayor Broome about applying for our grant.

In order for us to unlock federal money we have to have a 5 year spending plan and we have to have it done by April of next year and we have to address issues of cyber security. We have to tactically address those issues and the second is around climate. We have to address these as part of our five year plan. The unintended consequences of getting everyone internet is increased mental health issues, increased social isolationism, increased internet rabbit hole. On the front end helping to address cyber fraud. Those are things we are going to quickly address that we want to get feedback from you for our five year plan.

Tracy - We are investing in the network to prevent those dead area. We lost so many poles during hurricane Ida. Cox was looking at ways of reassuring those things.

Manny Patole - Everything is connected. The general question/comment for both, the idea of using public dollars for private things, even if the applications are out there and people are unaware of what they are, how do you get out in the communities to make sure people know what they are.

Tracy - The short of it is that we are not just reactively going out and marketing to people. We are out boots on the ground at the events to talk to people. We have a street team that goes out and talks to people and enroll people with the devices.

Alfreda Tillman - I’m concerned that we have not had the opportunity to do as much assessment with people to find out what they actually need. Getting the information to them and actually getting them enrolled.

The resources in the larger metro areas are not equitably distributed. Some of the kids go all the way through school and have not had computer literacy. COVID provided an absolute necessity to have that access. We can’t assume that just because it’s the 21st century and we should be teaching these things, that they are getting them.

Rev Anderson - In the incarceration system technology is the duel issue. The private companies come in and make it expensive and suck the assets out of those families. In the same systems, no jail or prison in the state does technology except for prison enterprises. Oftentimes, if I put a store in a low or no wealth community, I will charge more for that service, I will issue a poverty surcharge. My son went to a 360 school, and the benefit was that every nonprofit or community service has to provide that service to the students.

Community Announcements

I want to put this out. Baton Rouge Community Radio WHYR 96.9 is always looking for new radio shows from local people/organizations. It is all volunteer. It is a low powered radio station but streams world wide. Local shows can be picked up by any other community radio station and broadcast under Pacifica radio. If you or your organization needs a tool to get your concerns and conversations, please go to www.whyr.org and check out how to apply to be a show host.

We are filming with our transgender kids on Monday July 11. https://youtu.be/jcEOJOQaxJA

The law center is starting legislative wrap up sessions. Will be every other week for four sessions. The first is a general wrap up.

BRCC is going into the churches. Starting with Shilo.

Affordable housing summit - Monday, 9:30 to 11 at the Carver Library