Cleveland Plain Dealer

At a time when all Ohioans are being asked to stay at home to help flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases, phones, cellphones and internet connections are often a lifeline, connecting people to doctors, social services, unemployment, news, religious services, loved ones, and school lessons.

A Q&A with Wanda Davis, founder of the Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center (ASC3) in Cleveland (OH). 

Under changes the Federal Communications Commission recently proposed, fewer people may receive subsidized broadband service under the Lifeline program. Those left out will struggle to do online tasks such as filling out a job application, or paying bills online. About 12.5 million low-income people across the country, and thousands in Ohio, could be affected.There are even health implications, since so much of today's medicine relies on patients having the ability to make appointments, refill prescriptions and view test results online.

On some evenings, after the Cleveland Public Library branch on Woodland Avenue closes, people linger near the low-slung entrance or sit in cars in the parking lot. Heads down, their eyes locked on a phone or small computer tablet, they come to do what most of us do without much thought or the need to leave the living room couch -- connect to the internet. For the people who live just across the street in the apartments that make up the King Kennedy public housing complex, access to the internet is not so easy. Broadband networks are available, but many can't afford the service.

The Plain Dealer has found that the strain of Verizon's recent overage issue goes beyond flabbergasted adults struggling to decipher disjointed bills. Customers from New Hampshire to California have watched their data and fees surge, for no apparent reason, in recent months. The controversy has hit families especially hard, as parents struggle to understand how their children could devour so much data so quickly. Verizon two weeks ago said it was not experiencing any wide-scale problems but that it was looking into complaints.