Equitable Internet Initiative (EII)

If you live in Highland Park, Hamtramck, or North End, and want low-cost, high-speed internet, contact our digital stewards!

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CALL US: 313-236-4591

The Equitable Internet Initiative (EII) accelerates outreach, training and wireless high-speed Internet sharing in Detroit, Highland Park, and Hamtramck neighborhoods.

NEWCC, EII, and the Digital Stewards envision a future where the greater North End of Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park are utilizing a community based wireless network to access the Internet. In 2017, we brought this vision to life and began designing, building, and distributing the Internet on a community-governed platform. We are continuing the deployment of this mission and offering eligible locations a high-speed internet connection, limited only by line of sight and the range of our access points.

• Fiber internet in the North End would be an investment in the neighborhood’s infrastructure that would be more reliable, quickly and cheaply upgradeable, and faster than most city residents can access. The current method of copper transmission lines has an upward limit and has to be replaced to improve service. Fiber lines are upgraded by replacing the optics on the ends. This means that service can be improved without replacing the most expensive part of the project, the cabling. Optics are vastly cheaper in comparison (1/100th the cost of running new lines).

•This investment would also stay with the North End regardless of who offers service on these lines. Fiber speeds are only provided in very few city areas where wealthy businesses and residents are. This project would allow current residents and businesses of the North End to compete on a level playing field with those spaces. So, it will be a model of “uprooting digital redlining and planting digital justice.”