LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell released a map of priority locations where the County will build low-cost internet for households in the Second District. Supervisor Mitchell made the announcement in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Internal Services Department (ISD), which is Los Angeles County’s lead on digital equity, during a free laptop giveaway event at the Willowbrook Library this morning. ISD handed out 700 laptops across Los Angeles, all of which are enabled with a full year of IT support.
“I joined the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in the height of the pandemic. And it became very clear that access to reliable internet was critical to our success of emerging out of the pandemic. In the Second District, as much as 30 percent of households lack home internet. This is unacceptable, and Los Angeles County is working aggressively to upend this. We are leading the nation on a plan to crush the digital divide,” said Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell.
The Community Broadband Network (CBN) pilot will deliver free broadband services to low-income County residents. ISD will work with a pool of pre-qualified service providers to deploy and operate broadband networks in communities impacted by the digital divide. See map below for the pilot area in the Second District which includes neighborhoods along the 110 corridor south of the 10 freeway, including Willowbrook, Westmont, West Athens, Florence Firestone, and South Los Angeles. In September 2022, the LA County Board of Supervisors approved a total of $56 million to help connect families to fast and reliable internet.
Construction for the Community Broadband Network will begin in early 2023. The pilot area covers areas where more than 20 percent of households lack home internet. The goal of the program is to provide internet at low- and no-cost that is fast and reliable, where multiple members of a household can be streaming at the same time. Service providers are also required to provide multi-lingual community engagement programs and advertising.
For more information, visit DeletetheDivide.org.
To view photos from the event, click here.
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