Low-Income Americans Mustn't Fall Further Behind Due to Lack of Broadband, Clyburn Says
The nation’s poorest citizens must not fall even further behind because they're not connected to broadband, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said Wednesday at a Mobile Future event. At 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies, prospective employees can apply only online,…
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Clyburn said. “The world is changing,” she said. Clyburn noted that 45 states have at least one program for low-income people that requires online application. “That’s why you hear us talk about broadband affordability and adaptability; that’s why it’s so important,” Clyburn said. “Everybody is migrating online.” If low-income people “are not connected they will be left further behind and that, I hope you will agree, is unacceptable,” she said. A nationwide poll of African Americans found a significant gap between their “enthusiastic embrace” of mobile technology as consumers and their “awareness of mobile technology as a tool for economic empowerment,” said a survey released Wednesday by Mobile Future. The telephone poll of 800 African Americans found that 72 percent say they live in households with three or more connected devices and 68 percent report they use their smartphones frequently. But 53 percent saw a lack of skills and low awareness of mobile tech economic opportunities as the biggest barriers to participation in the mobile economy.