Rent the Internet

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. 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.