Cleveland's Poorest Neighborhoods Neglected By AT&T, Report Finds

CLEVELAND, OH - AT&T may have intentionally neglected impoverished areas of Cleveland, a new study from the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) and Connect Your Community (CYC). The group says the company may have intentionally neglected communities where 35 percent of residents fell below the poverty line.

The report from the NDIA specifically singles out the following neighborhoods as neglected, Hough, Glenville, Central, Fairfax, South Collinwood, St. Clair-Superior, Detroit-Shoreway, Stockyards, and a few others.

The report says, "Specifically, AT&T has chosen not to extend its “Fiber To the Node” VDSL infrastructure – which is now the standard for most Cuyahoga County suburbs and other urban AT&T markets throughout the U.S. – to the majority of Cleveland Census blocks, including the overwhelming majority of blocks with individual poverty rates above 35%."

A spokesperson for the company responded to the report by telling Patch, "We’ve invested nearly $1.5 billion in our Ohio wireless and wired networks during 2013-2015, with more than $325 million of that in Cleveland."

However, the study says the company has chosen to pursue reinforcing its position in other areas. As a result of this neglect, the study says residents of these neighborhoods are receiving severely limited internet access, in many cases 3 mbps or less. With speeds that low, residents do not even qualify for discounted internet packages because their speeds are too low.

AT&T spoke to Buzzfeed and defended their practices and ridiculed the study, saying “The report does not accurately reflect the investment we’ve made in bringing faster internet to urban and rural areas across the US.”

A company spokesperson told Patch, "We are also conducting technology trials over fixed wireless point-to-point mmWave and G.fast technologies to deliver greater speeds and efficiencies within our copper and fiber networks."

However, the study does say that "there is no indication that AT&T has expanded its FTTN infrastructure to any new areas of the city of Cleveland since 2013."

How could that be? NDIA and CYC say it's because AT&T lobbied representatives in the Ohio Congress to pass legislation that would allow a cable company to not service portions of their designated service territories. The idea being that if companies chose to neglect certain areas, other companies could swoop in and provide improved service.

In practice, the study says, it has meant AT&T neglects poor Cleveland neighborhoods and refocuses on suburbs and a few, wealthier sections of Cleveland. Effectively, that has meant that Cleveland's suburbs are 100 percent covered by AT&T mainstream FTTH/VDSL, while most of Cleveland is uncovered. Only 34 percent of Cleveland city blocks have their full, maximum internet speed.

The study concludes by arguing, "When lending institutions have engaged in similar policies and practices, our communities haven’t hesitated to call it “redlining”. We see no reason to hesitate to call it “digital redlining” in this case."

To read the entire report from CYC and NDIA, click here.

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch