#FixTheMaps

The State Threatens to Redline California’s Least Connected Communities in Multi-Billion Dollar Broadband Infrastructure Projects

Digital equity advocates came together at a California Broadband Council meeting to voice their concerns about the projects’ reliance on bad data to make critical funding decisions.

CALL-TO-ACTION
#OaklandUndivided call of the California Public Utilities Commission to:

Prioritize the State’s once-in-a-generation broadband infrastructure investment is the communities it’s intended to serve
Uncouple funding decisions from demonstrably inaccurate broadband service maps and make revisions that incorporate publicly available data and community generated sources of truth

By 2027, the State of California will make an $8 billion internet infrastructure investments intended to direct critical resources to communities bearing the brunt of the digital divide. To allocate this once-in-a-generation investment, the California Public Utilities Commission is responsible for generating maps that show which communities are most in need.

Despite race and income being the best predictor of (1) whether you have access to internet, (2) how reliable it is, and (3) how much it costs, the State has generated maps that are demonstrably inaccurate and systematically benefit wealthy, demonstrably served communities while woefully underrepresenting need in the highest poverty, least connected communities this funding is intended to serve.

Internet performance data from 15,000 locations and nearly half a million tests, show dense concentration of unserved locations in Oakland Flatlands.

For several months, the CPUC has been provided evidence of addition need in high poverty communities and over reported needs in high poverty communities, and still has not made any improvements to the map. Click video above.

The CPUC redesignates ~8X as many unserved locations in Alameda County’s highest income, least vulnerable communities, compared to in the disadvantaged areas funding intended to serve.

#OaklandUndivided and digital equity advocates across the State are calling on the State to #FIXtheMAPS before it’s too late and this historic opportunity is squandered, perpetuating patterns of private divestment in communities that have been bypassed for generations.
Click HERE for full presentation.