Baltimore’s Digital Divide: Gaps in Internet Connectivity and the Impact on Low-Income City Residents By John B. Horrigan, Ph.D. May 2020 The Abell Foundation Suite 2300 111 S. Calvert Street Baltimore, MD 21202-6174 All photos: Shutterstock TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................2 Key Findings ..........................................................................................2 Recommendations ................................................................................3 BACKGROUND ............................................................... 4 A new focus on broadband metrics ....................................................4 Cities for comparison ...........................................................................6 FINDINGS ....................................................................... 9 Cities and broadband access ...............................................................9 The demographics of adoption and the homework gap ...............14 Access to computing devices: Comparing Baltimore to other cities and the United States ....................................................16 Trends: How Baltimore compares to other cities and the nation in the rate of broadband adoption .......................................22 RESPONDING TO THE CRISIS .......................................25 Proposals at the federal level ...........................................................25 Recommendations for Baltimore City ..............................................26 APPENDIX I: GLOSSARY ................................................28 APPENDIX II: METHODOLOGY ..................................... 29 Abell Foundation www.abell.org @abellfoundation P: 410-547-1300 May 2020 2 Baltimore’s Digital Divide: Gaps in Internet Connectivity and the Impact on Low-Income City Residents by John B. Horrigan, Ph.D. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Key Findings A new analysis of American Community In 2018, 96,000 households in Baltimore Survey (ACS) data shows that large numbers (40.7%) did not have wireline internet of Baltimore households lack two essential service, such as cable, fiber, or digital tools for getting online: wireline broadband subscriber line service. service at home and computer access. Wireline service gives people latitude for • Some 59.3% of Baltimore households online activities, i.e., fast service with few data have wireline internet service. limits, that wireless access on smartphones • Across a selection of 33 cities, 69.9% or hotspots constrain. Computers enable of households have wireline service. web browsing on large screens that are better suited to learning, applying for jobs, or • Nationwide, 69.6% of households have accessing government services. Smartphones, wireline service. which enjoy wider adoption than other digital devices, are not a substitute for connectivity through a laptop or desktop computer. Some 75,000 Baltimore City households, or one in three, do not have either a desktop This report examines internet access in 33 or laptop computer. cities, including Baltimore. It includes cities to which Baltimore is frequently compared, • This means that over two-thirds (68.5%) such as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and of Baltimore households have a desktop Pittsburgh, and also ones that are known to or laptop computer in Baltimore. contain clusters of the technology industry, such as Boston, Seattle, and San Jose. • For the 33 cities studied, 75.7% of households have desktop or Compared to other cities, Baltimore has a laptop computers. significantly higher share of households lacking wireline broadband and desktop • For the United States as a whole, 77.5% or laptop computers. Underscoring the have such computers in the home. persistence of Baltimore’s access gaps, • In Baltimore City, nearly 20,000 wireline broadband adoption nationwide households with children under the age grew three times faster in the cities examined of 17 do not have wireline broadband than in Baltimore from 2016 to 2018. or computers at home. 3 • Specifically, 19,200 households with Gaps for home wireline broadband adoption children in the city do not have wireline and computer adoption are particularly broadband at home, or 34.7% of severe in Baltimore City for low-income such households. households and communities of color. • More than one-quarter (27.3%), or • For home wireline broadband, 73.3% 15,000 households with children, of white households in Baltimore City do not have either a desktop or have this service compared with 50.2% laptop computer. of African American households and • These gaps are pronounced for 46.4% of Hispanic households. low-income homes with children; • For desktop or laptop computers, 80% of homes lacking computers 80.7% of white households have these are in the bottom half of the city’s devices, while 60% of African American income distribution. ones do; the figure for Hispanic • For wireline broadband at home, households is 47.5%. 64% of homes without this service • With respect to income, just 33.8% are in the lower 40% of the city’s of low-income Baltimoreans (those income distribution for households whose annual household incomes with children. are less than $25,000) have home wireline service compared with 83% Baltimore fares poorly in comparison to for households whose annual incomes other cities and the nation on both levels exceed $75,000. of home wireline broadband adoption and growth in adoption since 2016. • For computers, 42.8% of low-income Baltimore homes have a desktop or laptop compared with 90% of • Baltimore ranks 29th out of the 33 households with annual incomes cities examined for home wireline above $75,000. broadband adoption. • Looking at trends, since 2016, Baltimore’s home wireline subscription Recommendations rate has barely moved, going from The pandemic crisis has led to calls for a 58.4% in 2016 to 59.3% in 2018. “connectivity stimulus” to get more people • For the 33 cities studied, home wireline online with quality internet service at home. broadband adoption grew from 67.1% Although this will involve federal action, in 2016 to 69.9% in 2018. there are things cities can do immediately to address digital inequality. • For the United States, home wireline broadband adoption grew from 67.3% in 2016 to 69.6% in 2018. Abell Foundation www.abell.org @abellfoundation P: 410-547-1300 May 2020 4 In Baltimore, policymakers and other BACKGROUND stakeholders should work collaboratively to: The COVID-19 pandemic has made internet • Develop a pipeline of device delivery access part of the social safety net. With large to low-income households, prioritizing portions of society driven to cyberspace during families with school-age children. This the pandemic, new attention has come to gaps would also entail increasing awareness in Americans’ internet connectivity. Those on of and subscription to discount home the wrong side of the digital divide are left internet service plans for low-income out during a national crisis that in many ways households. The City Council’s recent necessitates online connectivity for accessing announcement that $3 million from education and health care services. the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund will be used for internet The pandemic thus gives a sense of urgency connectivity for students in need is a to understanding the nature of digital access positive development. for decision-makers at all levels of government, especially cities. Data that the U.S. government • Enhance the capability of community collects via the American Community Survey anchor institutions such as libraries and (ACS) makes this possible, as this large-scale neighborhood nonprofits to provide survey asks households questions about the tech support and digital skills training, nature of their online connectivity. Research as well as expansion of wireless access. organizations that have used ACS for analysis include the National Digital Inclusion Alliance • Enlist a wide range of stakeholders to (NDIA), which ranks the “least-wired” cities in address digital inequality, e.g., deeper the United States. The Brookings Institution engagement among the business and has also examined internet connectivity in university communities. This was a metropolitan areas and the different factors point made in a 2017 report by the that influence the rate of connectivity in Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, a local different places. (See the “Methodology” foundation that has been a leader in section in the Appendix for more on the calling attention to digital equity issues ACS and the questions used in this report in Baltimore City. The newly founded for analysis.) Baltimore Digital Equity Coalition shows promise in further expanding the range This analysis will examine broadband of stakeholders addressing Baltimore’s connectivity in a selection of U.S. cities, access gaps. focusing on trends across cities from 2013 to 2018 (the last year ACS data is available). • Build capacity in city government The city of Baltimore will be the center of on digital access issues so that the analysis with a comparison of 32 other Baltimore’s city government can cities that have a range of economic and have a stronger leadership position demographic characteristics. on this issue. This means having the city’s elected officials place greater A new focus on broadband metrics priority on digital equity and investing in staff capacity and expertise in The COVID-19 pandemic has shed new light on how broadband can help increase metrics when it comes to high-speed