We found that AT&T, Verizon, EarthLink, and CenturyLink disproportionately offered the worst internet deals to neighborhoods that were formerly redlined, whose residents are lower income and have a higher concentration of people of color than other parts of the city. We examined actual internet offers to more than 800,000 addresses in 38 cities across the country. See our data here. GitHub People in disadvantaged neighborhoods would be offered plans as high as $100 per megabit per second, while those in more affluent areas that have more White residents and had the best historical redlining scores were offered plans for less than $1 per Mbps. The ultimate effect of these practices went beyond fairness: Those in disadvantaged neighborhoods were offered speeds so slow that they were denied the ability to participate in remote learning, jobs, and even family connection and recreation that are ubiquitous to modern life. A recent , for example, showed 90 percent of respondents saying the internet has been “essential or important for them personally during the coronavirus outbreak.” Pew survey Background The Markup collected 848,618 internet service offers made to addresses in 38 major U.S. cities. The top-line finding is that four companies—AT&T, Verizon, EarthLink, and CenturyLink—offered blazing fast internet plans (200 Mbps download speeds or above) at the same price they offered slow internet plans (under 25 Mbps, which is below the Federal Communications Commission’s floor for labeling a connection “broadband”). Some researchers have looked at broadband availability, and one, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, published a report saying some internet providers were advertising varying speeds for the same price, which it called “ .” tier flattening Our investigation is the first examination of actual offers to U.S. addresses, which were gathered from the providers’ lookup tools. Some of the pricing disparities were extreme. CenturyLink’s offers ranged from $100 per megabit per second (for 0.5 Mbps plans) all the way down to 25 cents per megabit per second (for 200 Mbps plans) in all 15 cities served by CenturyLink that The Markup examined. The federal government does not regulate internet pricing, so providers can charge whatever they want. However, the FCC is in rulemaking concerning “digital discrimination”  that could potentially govern this type of behavior. currently engaged The Data We used automated techniques to enter millions of addresses across 45 major U.S. cities into each of the four internet service providers’ websites and to save the advertised speed and price offers for each address. We collected data between April 15 and Oct. 1, 2022. Cities that offered uniform speeds (Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Providence, and Wilmington) were filtered out. The remaining offers in 38 cities were merged with socioeconomic data: median household income and race/ethnicity from the 2019 five-year American Community Survey, and historic redlining grades from the University of Richmond’s . Mapping Inequality project In 92 percent of the cities we examined, the areas offered the worst deals were lower income. In two-thirds of cities, the worst deals went to the least-White areas. In every city where there was enough data to do the analysis, the worst deals went to areas that had been historically redlined. The Markup found at least one of these disparities (income, race/ethnicity, or historical redlining grades) in every city except for Boise and Fargo. In , for each of the following cities, you’ll also find a breakdown of speeds offered to a representative sample of addresses in that city, as well as interactive, address-level maps. You will also find summaries about how internet speeds vary across socioeconomic areas, and code that can be used to reproduce our data-intensive investigation: our Github repository Albuquerque, N.M. ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Atlanta, Ga. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Billings, Mont. ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Boise, Idaho ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Charleston, S.C. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Charlotte, N.C. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Cheyenne, Wyo. ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Chicago, Ill. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Columbus, Ohio ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Denver, Colo. ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Des Moines, Iowa ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Detroit, Mich. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Fargo, N.D. ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Houston, Texas ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Huntsville, Ala. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Indianapolis, Ind. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Jackson, Miss. ( ) AT&T Jacksonville, Fla. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Kansas City, Mo. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Las Vegas, Nev. ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Little Rock, Ark. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Los Angeles, Calif. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Louisville, Ky. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Milwaukee, Wis. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Minneapolis, Minn. ( ) CenturyLink Nashville, Tenn. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink New Orleans, La. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Newark, N.J. ( ) Verizon Oklahoma City, Okla. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Omaha, Neb. ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Phoenix, Ariz. ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Portland, Ore. ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Salt Lake City, Utah ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Seattle, Wash ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Sioux Falls, S.D. ( ) CenturyLink, EarthLink Virginia Beach, Va. ( ) Verizon Washington ( ) Verizon Wichita, Kan. ( ) AT&T, EarthLink Based on which company serves the city you’re investigating, look at the interactive, address-level maps we created to help journalists do further reporting: Map for AT&T Map for CenturyLink Map for EarthLink Map for Verizon You can use the search bar to quickly travel to specific addresses or cities. If you know the areas, this will be immediately useful. However, if you would like an overlay of any socioeconomic factor in our investigation (median household income, the percentage of non-Hispanic White residents in the area, or redlining grades) we can produce them by request. These maps should be viewed alongside . summaries of how speeds vary across each city and between areas For a detailed breakdown showing precisely how we conducted our analysis, along with the full results, check out our . methodology Reporting Tips and Story Ideas Where are the clusters of slow connections? Talk to people on the ground in those communities to see what challenges they’ve faced in getting internet service and how it’s affected their lives. Look at the maps of connection speeds in your city. Use this to explore the hidden dimensions of housing segregation. For example, Kansas City, Mo.’s Troost Avenue is both a historical dividing line for racial segregation and an obvious inflection point separating a big cluster of fast connections from a big cluster of slow ones. Does the geographic divide between slow and fast neighborhoods in your city fall along any historical markers of segregation? Many of them have likely seen firsthand the effects of internet providers charging high prices for slow service in marginalized communities. A good resource for finding these groups in your city is to contact any local affiliates of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, a nonprofit that works with groups across the country helping get people online. You can find their affiliates list here: . Reach out to local organizations that have been working to get people in your community online. https://www.digitalinclusion.org/affiliates/ This data can tie into conversations about the nexus of digital equity and education, especially in areas with lots of slow connections. How do local school districts and teachers’ unions view the way online connectivity in their community affects the remote learning experience? Principals of schools that serve marginalized communities and PTA leaders there may also be good sources on how the lack of access affected students during the pandemic. During the transition to remote schooling, many students and teachers experienced how slow, inconsistent internet connection made learning difficult—if not impossible. Local Stories Using Our Data If you’re interested in using our data for your own coverage but need some more help, here are a few examples of how journalists have used our data in their own stories: Sarah Alvarez, Outlier Media: “ ” Detroit is paying big money for slow internet Becky Z. Dernbach, Sahan Journal: “ ” CenturyLink offers slower internet service to Black and brown neighborhoods in Minneapolis, new report claims Lina Tran, WUWM: “ ” Poor, historically redlined neighborhoods in Milwaukee pay more for slow internet Jacob Munoz, 89.3 WFPL: “ ” Report: Internet providers offer Louisville residents unequal speeds for similar prices Zoë Jackson and Jeff Hargarten, Star Tribune: “ ” In Minneapolis, disparities in internet package speeds can depend on address Alayna Alvarez, Axios Denver: “ ” Denver's low-income areas offered slower internet for higher costs Natalie Wallington, Kansas City Star: “ ” Some in KC’s least-white, lower income neighborhoods pay high prices for slower internet Kaylee Tornay, InvestigateWest: “ ” Poor and diverse areas of Seattle and Portland offered slower and more expensive internet Jacob Steimer, MLK50: Low-income Memphians receive worse internet service for the same price Updated March 16, 2023 This story has been updated to include examples of local journalism using our data. As we add new articles, we’ll update the date here. By and Leon Yin Aaron Sankin First published here Photo by on Alina Grubnyak Unsplash

The Markup Receives Recognition and Honors for Their Journalism

We Discovered Disparities in Internet Deals: Here's How We Did It

Every dollar you donate helps support The Markup’s work.

Read My Stories

Too Long; Didn't Read

Boost your HackerNoon story @ $159.99! 🚀

How to Investigate Which Neighborhoods in Your City Are Offered the Worst Internet Deals

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

Untitled Story

A Conversation with Kashmir Hill: Envisioning a Chaotic Future

The Noonification: How Big Tech Influences Privacy Laws (11/24/2022)

10 Most Evolving Big Data Technologies to Catch Up on in 2022

5 to 23 Patterns to Ace Any Coding Interview

5 Ways We Can Work to Close the Gender Gap in Tech

A Conversation with Kashmir Hill: Envisioning a Chaotic Future

The Noonification: How Big Tech Influences Privacy Laws (11/24/2022)

10 Most Evolving Big Data Technologies to Catch Up on in 2022

5 to 23 Patterns to Ace Any Coding Interview

5 Ways We Can Work to Close the Gender Gap in Tech

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps