Dallas has some of the worst Internet access in the U.S. Can the county fix it?

Dallas County Commissioner J.J. Koch is set to ask his colleagues Tuesday to position the local government as a leader in closing one of the worst digital divides in the nation.

Koch, a Republican who represents northern Dallas County, will make his opening pitch with a report he commissioned that shows access to high-speed internet is far worse than imagined. Residents across the county, he and his researcher will say, are paying too much for too little — if they have any access at all.

Among the most staggering data points: Three out of every 10 Dallas County homes don’t have access to the 2010 standard of broadband.

“The problem is we’re at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to broadband,” Koch said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News, previewing the report’s findings. “This is not something we can fix around the edges.”

At stake is a lost generation of school children who fell behind and are unable to catch up, a highly skilled workforce that attracts businesses to North Texas, and access to health care, which is increasingly relying on telehealth and at-home technology, said Todd Furniss, the researcher.

“If you don’t have access to broadband, you don’t have access to the American dream or the modern economy,” he said. “It means you don’t have access to education, jobs and health care.”

The digital divide — or the dearth of technology and internet access — is not a new problem. It has been studied by academics and industry experts and written about by journalists and activists. And local governments here and state governments across the country have taken steps to close the gap.

Texas, until recently, has resisted a singular statewide solution. This spring, lawmakers in Austin are finalizing plans for a new state broadband office and positioning Texas to be eligible for new federal resources.

The global coronavirus pandemic that forced most into their homes exacerbated the problem. And private internet providers are neither doing enough nor have a market incentive to fix this issue, Koch said.

For its part, Dallas-based AT&T has acknowledged the digital divide as a serious problem and has invested nearly $4 billion into the city’s networks to boost reliability, coverage and speed, a spokeswoman said. The investment, she said, has been particularly acute in southern Dallas, where 70% of homes now have access to high-speed fiber lines.

There is a difference, however, between access and affordability.

To make access more affordable, the company in 2016 began offering rates starting at $10 to homes with children who qualify for government-subsidized lunches at school. Since the pandemic, the company has waived many of those fees.

Koch said his end goal is to ensure 95% of Dallas County residents have access to modern-day, high-speed internet that costs no more than 2% of their household budget. However, he does not want Dallas County to become an internet provider. State law would also forbid that from happening.

Koch does see the county as a natural convener. Other governments and agencies, especially school districts, are already attempting to solve the problem. Working together and tapping into existing infrastructure such as fiber lines that run along DART rail, the county can position itself as a model for the state, Koch and others said.

“We can leverage all of that,” said Andres Ruzo, a Dallas businessman and founder of LinkAmerica, a telecommunications firm. “And we should change the way we think.”

Dallas ISD awarded Ruzo’s company a contract to work on a pilot to boost internet access in the neighborhood surrounding Pinkston High School in West Dallas. It’s part of an effort by the school district to boost internet access in six neighborhoods.

“This should be a human right to be connected to the internet,” he said. “And if we can make a difference in our school district, in our county, it can be a jewel in our country.”

While much attention on the digital divide has been placed on schools, health care is increasingly dependent on at-home monitoring and telehealth appointments. And the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the need for at-home health care.

“We all got excited for alcohol-to-go staying after the end of the pandemic, but far more meaningful for our community is having telehealth stick around — especially for mental health,” Koch said.

Lack of access to technology and the internet will put historically disadvantaged communities further behind, said Joseph Longo, Parkland Health & Hospital Systems’ chief information officer.

Technology is such a crucial part of health care now that it is being considered a “super” determinant — the less likely you have internet access, the more likely you are to face chronic illnesses.

“If we could solve the foundational question of the equitable questions of access, it would level the playing field,” Longo said.

Parkland, which is featured in Furniss’ report but was not part of the research, has taken its own steps to bring internet access to its patients.

Before the pandemic, it launched kiosks at Jubilee Park and Community Center near Fair Park. Patients could use the kiosks to check in with their care team and connect their phones to a wireless signal to upload data from their phones or tablets. The kiosks were closed during the pandemic and are expected to be reopened later.

Longo said he is open to working with other government agencies to expand broadband access throughout the county.

“If there was the right mix of service providers, and city and county officials engaged to coordinate and direct, Parkland would love to have a seat at the table,” he said. “This is not an unsolvable problem.”