Seattle Community Case Study – Digital Equity

If you’re reading this online, you’re one of the 95 percent of Americans with internet access. You may be part of the 80 percent with broadband access, perhaps even enjoying the fast speeds and advantages of fiber internet.

Connectivity affects nearly every aspect of most Americans’ daily lives. But not everyone is online—and often, it’s not by choice, even in tech hubs like Seattle. Nearly 17 million people in the U.S. still lack access to the internet, and even more Americans don’t have the high-speed broadband that many applications now rely on.

That disparity creates the digital divide. According to the National Digital Inclusion Association (NDIA), “the digital divide prevents equal participation and opportunity in all parts of life.” It disproportionately affects “people of color, Indigenous peoples, households with low incomes,” and more.

The digital divide can be even more dire for unhoused populations. For many, an internet connection is now essential to activities like:

• Finding employment
• Doing schoolwork and homework
• Banking
• Running a business

Even finding long-term housing can require access to the internet. Without a connection, how can you fill out an online-only application? How can you search for job listings? How can you pay bills or submit homework online?

In Seattle, the Local Connectivity Lab (LCL), a nonprofit organization affiliated with the University of Washington that builds community-based networks, set out to answer those questions. By partnering with the city, internet service providers, and other non-profits, LCL created community-based internet solutions for the city’s neediest citizens. In doing so, they harnessed fiber’s advantages to narrow the digital divide.

While the Tiny House Shelters addressed housing insecurity, LIHI also needed to address the issue of digital equity. They turned to the Local Connectivity Lab. At first, says LCL founder Esther Jang, the group worked specifically on open-source cellular connectivity technologies for rural low-resource regions. But when Seattle needed help providing internet access to its unhoused populations, LCL was uniquely equipped to lend a hand.

Working in partnership with the University of Washington, LCL relied on university funding systems to support their work. They began the Seattle Community Network (SCN) in 2019 to “share free or low-cost broadband access in higher-need areas throughout the city.” The new network planned to “use existing city network infrastructure such as...fiber-optic cables.”

Jang, who grew up in New York City, was inspired to start the Seattle Community Network from another program, NYC Mesh. Like SCN, NYC Mesh is a volunteer-driven organization that provides fast, affordable internet access for the city’s unserved and underserved residents. Jang volunteered with them during breaks from school. “I felt like I really clicked there,” she says. “I thought, these are my people.” She was determined to create something similar in Seattle.

“Initially, we started mostly with 4G LTE towers using open-source software on the rooftops of community institutions,” Jang explains. “It’s really cool, but it’s not the way for our service to reach the most people.” SCN’s greatest successes, she says, come from “not just experimenting on high with whatever funding we had, but knocking on doors and asking, ‘What exactly do you need?’”

That “boots on the ground” approach brought them to LIHI’s Tiny House Program. Fiber advantages, Jang says, played a vital role in the success of SCN’s mission there. “Fiber is so important,” she says. “(Lack of access) is a major driver of inequity, even in cities.” Fiber backhaul provides high-capacity, low-latency connections between local networks like Seattle Community Network and the larger backbone networks on which they depend.

But to fully utilize fiber internet's advantages, the Local Connectivity Lab had to look beyond the university's resources and partner with the city government.