Oakland will receive $15 million from California to close gaps in local internet speeds — a grant that faced objections from industry giants Comcast and AT&T, which had argued the town connects to the web no slower than any other place.
A group of advocates had fought through much of the pandemic to convince state technology officials that Oakland deserved a larger portion of funding for broadband improvements doled out from federal COVID-19 money.
But the new grant, announced this week, will fund the “last mile” of fiber-optic cable connection by tethering neglected areas to a larger backbone along major interstate highways.
The group — named OaklandUndivided — fought through the pandemic to convince California officials that East Oakland neighborhoods were being shortchanged in existing funding maps for broadband improvements.
With the new funding, Oakland joins other communities deemed by the California Public Utilities Commission to be “underserved,” including San Francisco (which received $10 million), Fremont ($7 million) and Plumas County ($7 million).
These are Northern California communities “a short walk or a short drive from the development of some of the world’s most famous advanced technologies,” but they “are on the wrong side of the digital divide,” John Reynolds, the CPUC’s commissioner, said before voting for the funding, per a news release.
In written objections to the $15 million grant, Comcast and AT&T had argued that a full 100% of the Oakland neighborhoods slated for improvements were covered by high-speed internet.
But utilities officials determined that the providers’ own websites listed some of the addresses in their maps as “unable to receive fiber services.” They also found “many of the locations the providers objected to are outside” the intended coverage area.
Oakland Connect, a community organization led by a former city school teacher, had rebutted the objections with reports clocking Oakland’s web connection as slower than the speeds that Comcast and AT&T advertise to the public.
Tests run by tech company HubbleIQ determined over a third of 8,000 addresses experienced low download speeds, per data shared with this news organization.
Young students in East Oakland told this news organization in past interviews that they struggled with internet access when the pandemic drove entire families to stay home. One teen, a high-school senior named Santiago Preciado, said he “missed a considerable amount of eighth grade because of that.”
Those inequities, noticed as well by teachers and after-school mentors, often go unmentioned in Oakland’s political discourse — but they appear to factor into achievement gaps between different areas of the city.
“This is a matter of information equity,” said Patricia Wells, who leads the Oakland Housing Authority. “All individuals, regardless of income, deserve access to reliable and affordable high-speed internet, identical to other essential utility services like water and electricity.”
