Some Thoughts on Universal Internet Access

This week, as one does when you work for a small shop, I was helping a coworker bring her laptop back to life. After successfully replacing the power jack she presented her phone to me to see if I could fix a long running issue with the phone.  Not to be too full of myself, but of course I was able to fix it.  One thing tripped me up though.  Her phone wouldn't connect to the Internet so I could validate the fix.

"Do you have cellular data turned off?" I asked.

"Yeah," was the response.

Because I'm not (totally) insensitive, I didn't ask why because it's pretty clear why. She's likely a single mom with two school age kids at home. She's working part time doing routine maintenance around the shop. Money is tight and the luxury of using cellular data is too expensive.

You'll notice I put the word "luxury" in quotes. While some might argue that a smart phone is a luxury it clearly isn't in a country like Canada or the United States. The expectation that an individual has access to a cell phone is a given and the ability to access the internet on these devices is assumed to the point where you can't really have one without paying for a data plan from your provider. In many ways, it's more important to have a network capable mobile device than it is to have a home computer. Having access to the internet contributes to a better quality of life and the access to resources and information.  The disparity created by limiting or denying lower income families access to the internet is unacceptable when you consider the wealth and prosperity of the countries I'm talking about.

What makes it even worse is that my cell phone plan, when I run out of cellular data, simply throttles my connection so that I can still do necessary things like maps, email, browsing.  I don't get charged extra.  That's because I have so much capacity in my plan that it almost never happens.  My ability to afford a better plan actually makes it harder for me to run into a scenario where I'd need to turn off cellular data.  As a result, I always have the tools I need.  No matter what.  My less financially well off coworker should be afforded the same.

I'm of the opinion that every phone plan should, as part of the base package, have unlimited data that covers the necessities.  Email, GPS, mapping, browsing.  Everyone with a cell phone should be able to do at least these tasks with impunity.  Not providing this creates an even greater disadvantage for the financially vulnerable.  And really, do they need more disadvantages?