3 Google Fiber programs that could help ease the digital divide

Google’s affordable broadband service is already impacting some communities and schools

The latest Digital Equity report from the Consortium of School Networking paints a picture of an educational environment where schools are at least on the right path to providing access to high-speed wi-fi within their walls (though there is still plenty of work to be done). An equally pressing problem is the fact that the number of pupils with fast connectivity dwindles as they move away from their K-12 hubs—and the divide deepens even further when issues like socioeconomic status, income, and race are taken into account.

According to The Pew Research Center, 82.5 percent of American households with school-age children currently have broadband access at home. This is approximately 9 percentage points higher than the broadband adoption rates across all households, CoSN reports, but there are still 5 million households with school-age children which lack broadband in the home.

“Students in these households experience what is being labeled the ‘homework gap,’” reported CoSN, pointing out that more than 75 percent of school district technology leaders have no strategy for addressing off-campus access.…Read More

Austin next city for ultra-fast Google Fiber

Google Inc. picked tech-savvy Austin as the next city where the search giant will wire homes with ultra-fast internet connections, but did not say how much customers will pay or when the fiber-optic experiment might expand elsewhere in the U.S., the Associated Press reports. Austin and Kansas City are the only places to get Google Fiber — a broadband service 100 times faster than the competition and an alternative to cable or satellite TV providers. The rollout is an expensive undertaking and gamble for Google, which must first build costly new broadband pipelines that can handle “gigabit” speeds. Google hopes the rollout will drive innovation and pressure phone and cable companies to improve its networks, since Google benefits when people spend more time online…

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Google Fiber could widen digital divide in Kansas City area

The city’s school district is worried that many of its buildings will be left without the fiber optic connections that will blossom in areas that are better off.

She has no internet access at home, so Robinett Foreman sweats over lost computer time at school.

The 17-year-old is one of 11 students out of 18 without home access in her business technology class at Kansas City Public Schools’ Central Academy of Excellence.

Stress builds in class, she said, “when I’m on a project, trying to do research, and [the internet] is running slow.”…Read More

University of Virginia considers joint application for Google Fiber

The University of Virginia is considering applying jointly with the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County to become a pilot community for the installation of Google Fiber, a fiber-optic network that could produce internet speeds greater than 1 gigabit per second, reports the Cavalier Daily. That’s more than 100 times faster than the broadband connections most Americans can currently access, all at a price that Google says is competitive. “Google has announced publicly that it’s looking for communities to install ultra high-speed internet,” Charlottesville City Council member David Brown said about the nomination process, which Google will conduct by accepting applications and online votes until March 26. “We’re very interested.” (See “Google to build ultra-fast web networks.”) The university would benefit from the many opportunities this technology would bring. For example, faculty members and students living off campus would have access to the same internet speed provided by the university, said Jeffrey Plank, associate vice president for research…

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