The Mary S. Biesecker Public Library in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, created the Library Internet Checkout Program in partnership with T-Mobile, allowing residents to “checkout” home internet service like they would a book. For $35 per month, patrons get access to T-Mobile home internet service with unlimited data, the T-Mobile “gateway” device (a combination modem and wireless router), and orientation from the library to ensure the service works at the patron’s home.¹ The program provides home internet access to over 1,500 households in Somerset County (pop. 72,000) for whom broadband access, affordability, or both may have been a hurdle in the past. 

Like most rural communities in the country, Somerset County feels the digital divide on multiple fronts. This small, rural county sits on the Maryland border in the northern Appalachian mountains. Broadband infrastructure deployment is challenging and expensive in the region due to rocky terrain, dense forest, and low population density. Data from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finds that over 7,000 locations in the county lack access to fixed broadband service. Broadband affordability is another barrier that residents in Somerset County face in getting online. When the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program ran out of funding in 2024, 3,759 households in Somerset County lost the $30-per-month broadband benefit, forcing families to make difficult budgeting decisions. 

How the Program Started and Grew 

In 2019, Morgan Simmons, the IT & Facility Coordinator at Mary S. Biesecker Public Library, took a sales call from T-Mobile that planted the seed for what would become the Internet Checkout Program. . T-Mobile was seeking new government customers during its 5G network rollout and offered the library a free trial of its new wireless home internet offering. The library received 10 activated gateways for 3 months. That trial period proved so popular that it blossomed into the Internet Checkout Program, which now offers a solution to many of the unconnected households in Somerset County. 

The program is open to anyone with a library card; however, service quality and availability vary throughout the county. Customers sign up for an orientation session directly on the library website, after which program staff determine whether T-Mobile service is available at the applicant’s household. There are no upfront costs for customers, and a 24-hour free trial period allows customers to confirm that the service is satisfactory at their household. Gateways and, by extension, internet services are checked out on a month-to-month basis, allowing customers to cancel their service at any time. 

The program has proved to be a massive success. Started at just two libraries—Mary S. Biesecker and the Somerset County Library’s main branch—the program has since expanded to all county libraries and attracts around 40 new customers each month.

With Growth, Comes Choices for Somerset County Libraries

The model that Simmons and his library colleagues created is self-sustaining. The partnership with T-Mobile allows the gateway, internet service, and administrative costs to be covered by the $35 per month rental fee. The county does not need to use any public funds to support the program’s activities or staff. In fact, the program has grown to the point of producing enough revenue to support a full-time position at the library to oversee its operation and growth. With that growth, Simmons and his colleagues have been exploring opportunities. The library has been contacted by Mission Telecom—a nonprofit that provides affordable broadband to under-resourced communities, including libraries—to drastically reduce subscription costs.

The Internet Checkout Program sits at the intersection of three main parts of the digital divide: broadband affordability, access, and digital skills. Simmons thinks the program's popularity stems from its solution for broadband access gaps in the county, and patrons have found that the service can work outside the area for which it is officially marketed. Additionally, patrons benefit from the program’s low prices and the library’s supplemental digital navigation services. The Somerset County Library has a team of digital navigators, and Simmons believes the checkout program has directed some customers to use them. The checkout program is intentionally kept separate from the digital navigation services to prevent the line between the two from blurring. When a customer of the checkout program calls the support phone number with a digital skills question, library staff is trained to direct the customer to the digital navigation service either informally or through a referral.

The Mary S. Biesecker Public Library and Somerset County Public Library have created one of the premier internet lending programs in the country. Simmons believes the library's model could be replicated elsewhere, particularly in rural areas that lack robust broadband infrastructure or where affordability is a barrier to broadband adoption.  

Notes:

1.  T-Mobile’s mass market offering for home internet starts at $55 per month before promotions.

Reid Sharkey is a Community Broadband Specialist & Research Associate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. He completed a year of Americorps service in 2023 which was his introduction to working in broadband and digital equity policy. Sharkey first worked with the Benton Institute during his service term. He assisted in administering the Benton Institute's Accelerate community engagement and broadband infrastructure planning program in Tennessee, where he was serving as an American Connection Corps Fellow at the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. Reid received a Masters of Public Policy from George Mason University in 2022.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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