AT&T's rollout of broadband serves the rich, shunts mid- and low-income families to the slow lane

[Zorro]

The argument that the private sector can do things better, faster and cheaper than government never seems to go out of style.

But a new report on AT&’s strategy for rolling out high-speed Internet service in California underscores what may be the biggest flaw in that argument: When critical infrastructure construction is left entirely to private companies, much of the public gets shortchanged.

The report, released Tuesday by UC Berkeley’s Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, shows how AT&T, the largest telecommunications carrier in the U.S. and California, favored the wealthiest communities in rolling out its Internet service. The median income of households with access to AT&T’s fastest fiber-to-the-home service was $94,208 as of last June. That was some 50% higher than the statewide median income of about $61,800 (as of 2015).

What is really essential infrastructure for connecting people ... should be rolled out in the public interest and in an equitable way.
The median income of communities offered at best AT&T’s slower U-verse fiber-to-the-neighborhood broadband service was about $67,000. And among communities with access to no better than AT&T’s slow DSL service, the median income was only $53,186 — below the median income of the entire state.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-att-fiber-20170425-story.html

[WhiteTara]

1. Thanks Republicons.