“It’s not just about the Internet — it’s more than that,” Supervisor Dennis Rodoni said. “It’s about Internet quality, cost and literacy for kids in school, for telehealth and for access to government.”
Dennis Noone
The county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in favor of adopting the Digital Marin strategic plan. The plan is the product of more than a year of outreach and research on the nature and depth of Marin’s digital divide — a gap in online access in the county that was exposed during the pandemic.
Board President Katie Rice said having a countywide plan in place — and asking all Marin cities and towns to adopt it as well — will provide a unified front. That unity will help the county receive the maximum amount of broadband infrastructure funding out of the $7 billion California is expected to net from the federal government for that purpose.
“The power of all of us going in the same direction — and having all the municipalities signing on — will affect our ability to leverage that money,” Rice said.
Most of the money that trickles down to counties in the state will go toward the so-called “middle mile” of broadband connectivity, said the county’s chief information officer, Liza Massey. That refers to regional trunk lines, such as one possibly extending along Highway 101 in Marin, as opposed to the “last mile,” which connects to individual homes and businesses.
“Affordability is the No. 1 issue,” Massey said. “Internet access costs approximately six percent more in Marin than the national average of $70 per month.”
Massey added that older adults and disabled people were also identified as either lacking the equipment or the skills to go online when necessary. Digital literacy training for those populations is included in the plan, she said.
“Also, there are first responders who have reported patches where they do not have quality service,” Massey said. “This hinders their emergency response.” She said 61 percent of first responders in Marin reported they have slowdowns or outages in digital connections every day.
“It’s really troubling,” she said.
Some residents said they were concerned about health effects of Wi-Fi connections, including possible impact from electromagnetic frequencies, or EMFs.
Vicki Sievers, a Marin health advocate who previously protested county deployments of 5G served on the plan’s committee to look at health aspects of broadband and how to provide safeguards in the plan.
Massey said part of the problem with Wi-Fi build-out is that the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates such things as cellphone towers and broadband Internet connections, has been relying on the 1996 Federal Telecommunications Act for its decisions.
The FCC’s 1996 law did not address “more than 11,000 pages of reports of adverse health impacts,” Massey said. “It’s woefully outdated. They have put the whole issue on the sidelines, and it’s up in the air.”
(c)2022 The Marin Independent Journal (Novato). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
