Even internet speeds are Redlined :dead:

[OfTheCross]

Structural Racism knows no bounds.

Dollars to Megabits, You May Be Paying 400 Times As Much As Your Neighbor for Internet Service – The Markup

An investigation by The Markup found that AT&T, Verizon, EarthLink, and CenturyLink disproportionately offered lower-income and least-White neighborhoods slow internet service for the same price as speedy connections they offered in other parts of town

themarkup.org

In her area, AT&T only offers download speeds of 1 megabit per second or less, trapping her in a digital Stone Age. Her internet is so slow that it doesn’t meet Zoom’s recommended minimum for group video calls, doesn’t come close to the FCC’s definition of broadband, currently 25 Mbps, and is worlds below median home internet speeds in the U.S., which average 167 Mbps.

↩︎ link

“In my neighborhood, it’s terrible,” Neville said.

But that’s not the case in other parts of New Orleans. AT&T offers residents of the mostly White, upper-income neighborhood of Lakeview internet speeds almost 400 times faster than Neville’s—for the same price: $55 a month.

The vast gulf between the quality of service AT&T offered these neighborhoods for the same cost is not a fluke.

The Markup gathered and analyzed more than 800,000 internet service offers from AT&T, Verizon, Earthlink, and CenturyLink in 38 cities across America and found that all four routinely offered fast base speeds at or above 200 Mbps in some neighborhoods for the same price as connections below 25 Mbps in others.

The neighborhoods offered the worst deals had lower median incomes in nine out of 10 cities in the analysis. In two-thirds of the cities where The Markup had enough data to compare, the providers gave the worst offers to the least-White neighborhoods.

These providers also disproportionately gave the worst offers to formerly redlined areas in every one of the 22 cities examined where digitized historical maps were available. These are areas a since-disbanded agency created by the federal government in the 1930s had deemed “hazardous” for financial institutions to invest in, often because the residents were Black or poor. Redlining was outlawed in 1968.

By failing to price according to service speed, these companies are demanding some customers pay dramatically higher unit prices for advertised download speed than others. CenturyLink, which showed the most extreme disparities, offered some customers service of 200 Mbps, amounting to as little as $0.25 per Mbps, but offered others living in the same city only 0.5 Mbps for 400 times as much—$100 per Mbps.

 

[DEAD7]

 

[Bubba T]

“Notes on the historical map explaining why one part of Kansas City, Mo., was redlined cited “Negro encroachment from the north.” In that same area, AT&T offered only slow service to every single address The Markup examined.”

 

[Secure Da Bag]

The Hand of the Free Market strikes again.

 

[Black Hans]

Simple solution: Black people shouldn't rock with AT&T. Go to Spectrum or Verizon as an ISP. at being with broadband speeds.

 

[DEAD7]

The Hand of the Free Market strikes again.

The industry group USTelecom, speaking on behalf of Verizon, said the cost of maintaining the antiquated equipment used for slow speed service plays a role in its price.

“Fiber can be hundreds of times faster than legacy broadband—but that doesn’t mean that legacy networks cost hundreds of times less,” USTelecom senior vice president Marie Johnson said in an email. “Operating and maintaining legacy technologies can be more expensive, especially as legacy network components are discontinued by equipment manufacturers.”

Its gross, but doesnt seem like bullshyt to me. Older(and cheaper) areas typically have significantly worse infrastructure across the board.

Framing it as though ISP's are specifically targeting black and brown homes is race hustling to me. Older white neighborhoods had the same issues.

 

[Rice N Beans]

Not surprised it's ATT. Putting a CO Box in the worse neighborhoods was apparently a bridge too far, and the area I am in suffered with 384kbps until I think local govt intervention.

 

[Hood Critic]

The industry group USTelecom, speaking on behalf of Verizon, said the cost of maintaining the antiquated equipment used for slow speed service plays a role in its price.

“Fiber can be hundreds of times faster than legacy broadband—but that doesn’t mean that legacy networks cost hundreds of times less,” USTelecom senior vice president Marie Johnson said in an email. “Operating and maintaining legacy technologies can be more expensive, especially as legacy network components are discontinued by equipment manufacturers.”

Its gross, but doesnt seem like bullshyt to me. Older(and cheaper) areas typically have significantly worse infrastructure across the board.

Framing it as though ISP's are specifically targeting black and brown homes is race hustling to me. Older white neighborhoods had the same issues.

The whole point of the telecom industry getting subsidies was to upgrade the infrastructure. Even by this admission, they're prioritizing other areas to allocate those funds to and falling back on the tried and true excuse of "legacy components" are expensive to upkeep and replace.

 

[Secure Da Bag]

The industry group USTelecom, speaking on behalf of Verizon, said the cost of maintaining the antiquated equipment used for slow speed service plays a role in its price.

“Fiber can be hundreds of times faster than legacy broadband—but that doesn’t mean that legacy networks cost hundreds of times less,” USTelecom senior vice president Marie Johnson said in an email. “Operating and maintaining legacy technologies can be more expensive, especially as legacy network components are discontinued by equipment manufacturers.”

Its gross, but doesnt seem like bullshyt to me. Older(and cheaper) areas typically have significantly worse infrastructure across the board.

Framing it as though ISP's are specifically targeting black and brown homes is race hustling to me. Older white neighborhoods had the same issues.

I'm happy to accept it as classism instead of racism. But it doesn't change the fact that those poorer neighborhoods are being overcharged for shyt speeds. On purpose.

The whole point of the telecom industry getting subsidies was to upgrade the infrastructure. Even by this admission, they're prioritizing other areas to allocate those funds to and falling back on the tried and true excuse of "legacy components" are expensive to upkeep and replace.

So they got those subsidies and still chose not to upgrade the Black and brown neighborhoods? Sounds like racism to me.

 

[OfTheCross]

The National Council on Aging

www.ncoa.org

 

[Geek Nasty]

AT&T Fiber, now available in fast, medium, slow, and

"The only packets we dropping is the black ones"

 

[ADevilYouKhow]

Op and dead7 support this

 

[Ethnic Vagina Finder]

3 words


Class
Action
Lawsuit

 

[Rice N Beans]

3 words


Class
Action
Lawsuit

Not sure how well that would work. The way they do this is they just don't drop the necessary equipment in those areas to allow for better and faster connectivity. Whatever would be framed as "we didn't have enough $$$ for the rollout of equipment there. "

 

[DaddyFresh]

This isn’t really racism. They all charge you based off your area and not across the board. It makes financial sense to invest your fiber infrastructure first in wealthy neighborhoods that have their internet bills on auto pay. The hood will have a huge amount of outstanding accounts.