A quarter of Albany households don’t have the internet. That’s a lot.
Somewhere between a quarter and third of Albany households can’t access the internet from home.
That’s as many as 12,000 homes where people can’t look for jobs or research doctors online, take online college courses or hunt for the best price on something they have to buy.
Given how heavily we rely on the internet to do basically everything in 2016 — including homework — that’s huge.
According to census data released this fall, roughly 29 percent of homes in the city lack internet subscriptions — give or take 3.5 percent. Even on the low end of that range, that’s a lot.
The Census Bureau only began collecting this data at the city level in 2013, and aside from what the numbers explicitly tell us, they’re interesting because they offer another window on how poverty impacts a city in ways that aren’t as obvious as blighted neighborhoods or the number of school children receiving subsidized lunch.
The consequences are fairly straightforward: A more difficult time finding work and navigating the healthcare system, a harder time completing school assignments and paying more for things than necessary — just to name a few.
More interesting is that, by comparison, Albany is the most plugged-in big city upstate. Of the five largest cities north of the Bronx, Albany ranks second behind only Yonkers in the percentage of households that can log-on from home.
Not surprisingly, the numbers on home internet connections more or less track with poverty. At about 27 percent, Albany’s poverty level is the lowest of the four big upstate cities.
Statewide, 78 percent of New York households have access to the internet. In the Capital Region, the figure is about 80 percent thanks to more affluent places like Saratoga County where the home subscription rate is as high as 88 percent.
That means Albany, while better off than some of the poorest big urban areas upstate, is still lagging behind. And it’s further evidence that the digital divide in 2016 is not purely a problem of rural infrastructure.
The state has pledged $500 million to make broadband accessible to every New Yorker by 2018 — an aggressive goal that would wipe out vast upstate high-speed internet dead zones. The city, too, has commissioned a working group to study broadband quality and access.
But the numbers suggest that in Albany and places like it, penetration of broadband infrastructure isn’t the issue. It’s not that people couldn’t buy a subscription if they could afford one.
The vast majority of Albany residents with internet service at home are using some kind of broadband. The biggest obstacle is more likely cost.
The Pew Research Center found that among Americans without broadband, 43 percent cited the steep cost as the chief reason. Exactly how much broadband will run you varies by location and whether it’s bundled with other services, but 2011 data collected by the federal government found the majority of users were paying somewhere between $30 and $60 a month for it.
(Pew also notes that broadband adoption appears to be leveling off thanks in large part to the rise in smartphone use, but the census accounts for this by including households with mobile broadband — e.g., tablets and smartphones with data plans — in its figures.)
All this points to why the work of organizations like the Albany Public Library is so important. The APL last year began loaning tablets that double as Wi-Fi hotspots, giving patrons a device and a connection to surf the web from the comfort and privacy of their own homes. For free. At the library’s branches alone, Wi-Fi use increased 12 percent last year.
Some argue a municipally run broadband network will yield better, more affordable service — though the start-up costs would be formidable for a city as cash-strapped as Albany. City and state officials have also looked to the private sector to boost competition, sharply criticizing Verizon for declining to expand its fiber-optic network from the surrounding suburbs into Albany.
Ultimately, it’s not just about the ability to scroll through Facebook or e-pay your National Grid bill while wearing your slippers. Those are the luxuries internet access affords.
Internet access ceased to be a luxury when it also became virtually a requirement to apply for many jobs. More than 40 percent of those without broadband access cite it as a major obstacle to their employment prospects.
Finally, aside from all these mostly familiar arguments, there’s another hidden consequence to a city of so many digital have-nots. As our means of neighborhood organization and civic and political activism increasingly shift online, those who cannot follow them there — the same people who are already likely to be marginalized by poverty — get left behind.
