Boston Digital Equity Report Outlines Gaps, Recommendations

The city of Boston’s Innovation and Technology Cabinet has announced its digital equity assessment results.

Boston has been leading the way in digital equity, through regular community assessments and financial investment.

The assessment was conducted in 2024 to help inform the city’s development of its 2025 Digital Equity Plan. The development of this plan is ongoing, and it is slated for release in the coming months.

The survey addresses Internet access, device access, and digital literacy and skills. Most respondents had home Internet connections — more than 80 percent of overall respondents — but some specific populations in the city were less likely to have this access. Affordability, connection speed, and digital literacy still act as barriers to access. Forty-seven percent of respondents overall expressed interest in free digital skills classes.
Specific marginalized populations are less likely to express confidence in their digital skills, the survey found: seniors, veterans, public housing residents and Latino residents. The populations facing the greatest challenges with Internet and device access are those in public housing, low-income households, recipients of government assistance, and formerly incarcerated individuals. Some individuals belong to more than one of these marginalized populations.
One in four public housing residents lack home broadband, with more than a fourth citing cost as the reason.
The survey also revealed that more than 133,000 housing units in the city lack access to fiber broadband, which is sometimes referred to as the “gold standard” for its speed and reliability.

One factor that has contributed to the digital divide in Boston is the end of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which the city enrolled in at a higher rate than the state average; 56,000 households lost monthly broadband subsidies when it ended. Forty-eight percent of Indigenous respondents were enrolled in the ACP in Boston and 43 percent of formerly incarcerated individuals. This has impacted other digital inclusion work at the local level elsewhere, too, as seen in Baltimore, where the program’s end forced the city to rebuild lost trust in government programs. The assessment also found that while city departments have expanded digital equity programs, future funding remains in question.
And looking at connectivity through an economic lens, 30 to 40 percent of priority populations lack confidence in applying for jobs or benefit programs online.

Along with the results of this assessment, officials also offered recommendations for addressing the remaining access gaps and barriers. For example, they recommend the city invest in multilingual outreach to increase awareness of digital access programs among immigrant communities. And it’s recommended to secure sustained or expanded funding for the city’s digital navigators program, Boston Housing Authority (BHA)’s laptop distribution program, and the Digital Equity Fund’s 30-plus programs.

With device access being a remaining barrier, it is recommended that the city expand the public library’s device lending inventory, BHA’s computer labs and those in city departments, and to provide short-term hot spot lending for residents who are waiting to qualify for low-cost Internet plans. The creation of new public-private partnerships can also support efforts for distributing refurbished devices.

The assessment was conducted by the MassINC Polling Group, CTC Technology and Energy, and Health Resources in Action with support from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute.

The city is accepting feedback on the assessment, takeaways, and recommendations to inform the plan’s development.