Equitable internet access lacking in Kent County

(KENT COUNTY, Mich.) An online presence is a necessity in today's world with so much of life taking place on the internet for work, school, job applications, shopping, and even scheduling doctors appointments.  

"For many people one of the first things you do is you pick up your phone, you log into your computer", said Tim Moroz, the Senior Vice President of Community Development for The Right Place. 

What was once a luxury is now a need, and one that can be hard to meet in certain parts of Kent County. 

"Typically, we can say there are areas of Southeast Grand Rapids, there are areas of the near Westside of Grand Rapids and there are areas to the north you know the Cedar Springs and Sparta areas where there are really significant disparities in the access to resources and income levels for those households and those tend to be the areas where internet connection is lacking," said Wende Randall, the director for the Kent County Essential Needs Taskforce. 

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Affordability is a challenge for low-income people and families and while there are programs designed to help, Randall says those don't solve the whole problem of affordability. 

"They oftentimes can get into a specific plan, a special plan for low-income households but those plans are often time limited and often times they don't have the appropriate speed for both download and upload that's really going to meet the functions that they serve within their household," said Randall. 

Moroz says renting or owning your home can also determine the quality of internet connection. 

"The larger apartment complexes tend to have pretty good solutions available for tenants but once you get down into single family home rentals, duplexes and triplexes, oftentimes you're at the whim of what that individual housing owner has in place and how much they are willing to invest in broadband for those homes," said Moroz. 

Randall says an ongoing study about internet across Kent County is one step in addressing the problem. 

However, she says it's important to recognize that handing an individual or family a device is not always enough. 

"There might be issues with maintaining that device, so making sure it's getting the proper upgrades it needs or having people respond to questions or challenges," said Randall.

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The Federal Infrastructure and Jobs Act has $65 billion set aside to address challenges related to internet. 

Randall says most of that money will go towards infrastructure and it will be a long time before some improvements are made. 

"Unfortunately, that takes years because that means construction projects," said Randall. It means laying fiber, it means having a workforce that's trained to do that type of work. So, there is no quick fix to any of this."

Both Randall and Moroz says that recognizing reliable internet access as a need not a luxury is critical to solving disparities. 

"Having broadband access, not just for adults in a household, but for the future workforce, the children that are in school right now having the ability to adopt technology earlier is gonna make us have a stronger, more competitive workforce in the future," said Moroz. 

If you believe you might qualify for a discount on your internet bill you can find more information about the Affordable Connectivity Program online.