Page 44 - Innovation Delaware 2021

investments in broadband have helped build out new broadband infrastructure, identify areas where we need to improve internet speeds, and eliminate barriers so all Delawareans have access to high-speed internet service.”
Meanwhile, corporate-funded dona- tions of laptops and tablets in commun- ities like Wilmington’s Riverside have continued to show a strong commitment to the problem. For its part, Comcast recently upgraded its “Internet Essentials” package—an internet plan, aimed at low- income households, that the company has had on offer for 10 years.
“When we look around as a company and say where really can we make an impact, where is our skill set best used, the digital divide is that place,” says STEPHANIE KOSTA, Comcast’s regional vice president of government and regulatory affairs. “We are an internet service provider, so we are uniquely situated to understand the challenges to providing internet, the obstacles to getting people to adopt internet.”
Kosta notes that improvements to the Internet Essentials package over the
years have included loosened eligibility requirements and increased speeds. The current package offers a respectable 50 megabits per second—plenty for streaming, gaming and regular use, though perhaps not always enough to have a large number of devices all running simultaneously. In addition to supporting digital literacy programs in schools, donating laptops, and setting up free Wi-Fi at numerous community centers around the state, Comcast has reached more than 30,000 Delaware residents with the Essentials program since its inception in 2011; in response to COVID-19, the company is offering the first two months of Internet Essentials free to new customers.
Markevis Gideon, who founded the Wilmington-based computer and smart phone repair outfit NERDiT NOW in 2015, takes note of the increase in corporate and government interest in closing the digital divide. “We’re seeing a lot of big players come up to the plate to help combat this, but we still have a ways to go,” Gideon says. “It takes organizations not only just like mine, but some of the larger organizations, some of the financial
institutions, to be intentional and make sure we close this digital divide. It’s not a black or white thing, it’s just a right or wrong thing.”
Training More Tech Workers
NERDiT NOW, which donates 100 laptops a year and supports a nonprofit operation (the NERDiT Foundation) is adding IT recycling to its list of services. Gideon took a look at all 10 of Maryland’s IT recycling sites as well as several of Pennsylvania’s 25 sites. Each of them, he says, is generating over $5 million a year. Until NERDiT got in the game, Delaware had no certified IT recycling sites, meaning the First State was shipping IT recyclables to its neighbors — a fact Gideon says is “just crazy.”
“Let’s say we can make $5 million a year recycling,” Gideon says. “We want to take a large portion of that and be intentional in closing the digital divide,” by donating more technology and by training more people to become technology workers. NERDiT NOW last year launched a mentoring and training program with four participants — by this spring, it had
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