Thanks to its Airband band initiative, Microsoft strives to close the digital divide over the last four years by expanding broadband access in rural areas of the United States. But reliable and affordable Internet access is not always available in cities either. The company is now paying attention to urban areas and expands the Airband band program in Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York City, El Paso and Memphis.
Although broadband infrastructure exists in these cities, access is always unaffordable for a lot of service and device costs. This leaves “access to the essentials of life out of reach for millions,” as Vickie Robinson director in Vickie Robinson in a blog article. The question is “particularly acute in black, African-American, Latin and Hispanic communities,” wrote Robinson.
In addition to reducing the cost of broadband service, Microsoft plans to provide free or low-cost renovated devices to help people in underserved communities in these eight cities access the Internet. It will also offer tools and resources to help people learn or improve digital skills. The company works with a variety of partners for this to happen, including PCs for people and digital.
One of the Microsoft measures adopts to close the digital divide is a funding program for low credit scores or no credit history that are low-cost broadband clients from an Internet service provider called Starry. They will be able to buy a Surface Go 2 and an office for the house and the student of $ 22 a month. The offer is open in Los Angeles and New York, and Microsoft will bring it to the other six cities in the coming months.
The expansion of the air strip in cities is also part of Microsoft’s racial equity initiative. The company announced the program last summer with the aim of solving racial inequalities and the injustice of the black and African-American community in the United States.
Meanwhile, efforts are ongoing at the federal and state level to close the digital divide. President Biden’s infrastructure plan includes broadband expansion, while the proposed budget proposed by Gavin Gavin Newband Governor presented a broadband project of $ 7 billion.
