At least 100,000 San Francisco residents lack adequate Internet access and miss out on economic and educational benefits. So the city has made strides by working with a local Internet access company and CTN partner and supporter, Monkeybrains. The city of San Francisco and Monkeybrains have adopted a new model to bring high-quality connectivity to residents in public housing. Thanks to low startup and maintenance costs, their solution will be financially self-sustaining for years to come.
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) recently published the Public Housing Digital Inclusion Footprint (PDF), outlining this new model it references as a “sustainable gig.” The model provides gigabit-speed Internet access to public housing units for only $10 a month and provides the same level of customer service that they would give any other subscriber.
This new and improved model will allow CTN educators to effectively train residents on their devices — and the residents can use their devices at home. Monkeybrains provides the broadband service to individual users, and CTN and others offer training to drive adoption. This combination offers a model for true digital equity.
