Texas Public Radio By Paul Flahive • Feb 7, 2020
To say there is a lot of hype around 5G is probably an understatement. Verizon and T-mobile spent an estimated $22 million in Super Bowl ads to tell us all about it.
In one commercial Verizon said it would allow firefighters see through smoke and doctors to communicate with ambulances in real time. Actor Anthony Anderson touts the supremacy of T-Mobile’s 5G network to his mother who ground-truths the matter by going from the pie shop to the park to ultimately the club.
What gets left out of the conversation is that 5G will likely not be rolled city-wide, but — as in technologies past — predominantly in wealthier areas. 5G will bring the next generation of wireless technology to San Antonio and other cities across Texas, but advocates argue it will bring the fifth generation of digital inequality.
“I don’t know how any of us can think that 5G will be different, that the ISPs will make different decisions than they did with previous technologies,†said Angela Siefer, executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a non-profit that advocates for connecting low-income and disconnected communities.
“We know that AT&T digitally redlined, we know they skipped low-income neighborhoods when they were rolling out their faster DSL because of the data they gave to the FCC,†she said.
Unlike in banking, digital redlining — or not investing in low-income and minority communities — is not illegal.
AT&T has denied it redlines and in a response to a 2017 FCC complaint in Cleveland, company officials told Broadcastingcable.com that “(AT&T’s) commitment to diversity and inclusion is unparalleled†and its decisions are based on “cost and demand forecast modeling.â€
More:
https://www.tpr.org/post/5g-will-not-solve-digital-divide-advocates-argue?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HC_TexasTake&utm_term=news&utm_content=briefing
