Getting online is much more expensive in the U.S. than in many other parts of the world. It’s no secret, then, that many low-income Americans find themselves on the wrong side of a “digital divide”—the high cost prohibits them from getting an Internet connection. This means that kids and adults who could benefit most from the trove of knowledge and resources available online are the ones who don’t have access to it.
To narrow this persistent digital gap, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced their ConnectHome initiative in partnership with Google Fiber last July. The goal was to bring free, high-speed Internet to select public-housing facilities across the country. Today this ambitious project kicks off at the West Bluff housing facility in Kansas City, where 100 households, many with school-age kids, will be connected to Internet as fast as 1,000 megabits per second. In the next few months, project leaders expect to do the same for 1,300 other families in Kansas City.
