Cheap internet for low-income users spreads in Denver, but there’s more to the urban digital divide

In cities like Denver, where broadband is so prolific that availability is estimated at 99.94%, the digital divide is no longer about lack of internet service or limited to rural areas. A plethora of reasons exist as to why the divide persists in urban areas and the issue is gaining more attention from researchers, organizations and policymakers who debate whether it’s about accessibility, affordability or lack of understanding. It’s a quandary that companies like Starry are trying to figure out. The fixed-wireless internet provider, which lights up apartment buildings, launched in Denver. It typically charges $50 a month, but a cheaper offering, the $15 Starry Connect, is made possible by partnering with public housing. It’s part of the company’s mission “that everyone deserves great broadband,” said Stephan Andrade, Starry’s Denver general manager. Starry committed to making its 30-megabits per second service available to all 26,000 Denver Housing Authority residents by the end of 2020. By offering it to an entire building, there’s no need for residents to pre-qualify on various federal programs, as some competing services require. If you’re a tenant, you qualify. Even so, only an average of 30% of tenants sign up after 90 days, said Virginia Lam Abrams, Starry’s senior vice president of communications. She cites reasons such as tenants have another provider, like Comcast, or they may not be able to afford it.  But it also may not just be about the cost, she added. One building owner decided to pay for broadband service so that all his tenants could use Starry Connect for free. One thing is clear: People don’t say no to internet because they aren’t educated or or understand why its relevant, said Reisdorf, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “There’s a stipulation that people are too uneducated to understand the value of the internet. That’s not true at all in my research,” Reisdorf said. “I’ve interviewed people who have been incarcerated for 30 to 40 years and they absolutely understand the importance of the internet.”