Former Spectrum Workers Fight for Fair Internet: Here's How They’re Closing the Digital Divide

In New York City, the dream of free, high-speed, community-owned internet was once more than just a dream. The People's Choice Communications, a worker- and community-owned internet cooperative, launched in 2020, and thanks to subsidies from the Affordable Connectivity Program, successfully offered fast, cheap internet in the Bronx while the ACP was still active. "No one believed that we could actually build out the system," said Troy Walcott, president of People's Choice, "and then we built it." The city's decision to exclude the co-op from the Big Apple Connect program has led to significant staff reductions at People's Choice and put the organization at risk. Still, the story of the co-op is an unlikely and rare tale of broadband connectivity, one that begins with Spectrum workers going on strike. Locating local internet providers Building from the ground up In 2017, 1,800 Spectrum workers walked out because of unmet demands regarding health care and retirement benefits, after ... Read full article.