Oakland will get $15 million from California to close gaps in local Internet speeds — a grant that faced opposition from industry giants Comcast and AT&T, which had argued the city’s Internet connection is no slower than anywhere else .
A group of advocates had fought through much of the pandemic to convince state technology officials that Oakland deserved a larger share of the funding for broadband upgrades provided by federal COVID-19 money.
But the new grant, announced this week, will fund the “last mile” of fiber optic cabling by connecting neglected areas to a larger backbone along major interstate highways.
The group — called OaklandUndivided — fought through the pandemic to convince California officials that East Oakland neighborhoods were changing existing funding maps for broadband upgrades.
With the new funding, Oakland joins other communities deemed “underserved” by the California Public Utilities Commission, including San Francisco (which received $10 million), Fremont ($7 million) and Plumas County (7 million dollars).
These are Northern California communities “a short walk or a short drive from the development of some of the world’s most famous advanced technologies,” but they “are on the wrong side of the digital divide,” John Reynolds previously said. CPUC commissioner. voting on the funding, according to a news release.
In written objections to the $15 million grant, Comcast and AT&T had argued that fully 100% of the Oakland neighborhoods slated for improvements were covered by high-speed Internet.
But utility officials determined that the providers’ own websites listed some of the addresses on their maps as “unable to receive fiber service.” They also found “many of the locations that providers objected to are outside” their intended coverage area.
Oakland Connect, a community organization led by a former city school teacher, has dismissed objections to reports that Oakland’s Internet connection is slower than the speeds that Comcast and AT&T advertise publicly.
Tests conducted by technology company HubbleIQ determined that over a third of 8,000 addresses had slow download speeds, according to data shared with this news organization.
Young students in East Oakland told this news organization in past interviews that they struggled with Internet access when the pandemic forced entire families to stay home. One teenager, a high school student named Santiago Preciado, said he “missed a significant portion of eighth grade because of this.”
These disparities, also noted by teachers and after-school mentors, often go unmentioned in Oakland’s political discourse—but they appear to affect achievement gaps between different areas of the city.
“This is an issue of equality of information,” said Patricia Wells, who heads the Oakland Housing Authority. “All individuals, regardless of income, deserve reliable and affordable high-speed Internet access, identical to other essential utilities such as water and electricity.”
Originally published:
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