A national effort took some big steps to bridge the digital divide for members of the Choctaw Nation this week. More than 50 homes within the tribe now have high-speed Internet connections at no charge to residents through the ConnectHome Internet initiative.

A national effort took some big steps to bridge the digital divide for members of the Choctaw Nation this week. More than 50 homes within the tribe now have high-speed Internet connections at no charge to residents through the ConnectHome Internet initiative.

ConnectHome is designed to bring high-speed and low-cost Internet to 27 cities nationwide and the Choctaw Nation. ConnectHome Coordinator for the Choctaw Nation Fred Logan said Choctaws living in HUD housing in southeastern Oklahoma are among the first to receive these services. Logan said for the communities he sees on a daily basis, the digital divide is real.

"Take Bokoshe," he said. "Of the 16 units there, there was, I believe, two people that had Internet."

Another man Logan said he met did not even know what the Internet was.

As the boots on the ground, Logan initiates a long process of knocking on doors and explaining to residents that ConnectHome Internet is available to them at no charge, and gets each home connected to the Internet. Those who already have Internet have the option of keeping the Internet they currently have, or switching to the Internet ConnectHome provides.

"One lady was paying $89 a month, and I hooked her up and … she found out immediately that day that the Verizon we hooked up was way faster than the AT&T that she had, so she was wanting to shut that off, and she shut it off just as soon as I told her that Verizon was unlimited (data)," Logan said. "She was overjoyed then. She has grandkids that come and visit and if they’re like my grandkids, they’ll be on the Internet for sure."

To receive the free Internet, these homes also have to agree to take digital literacy classes this summer to ensure that individuals will use the Internet appropriately.

The biggest challenge to get access to these people, however, is getting the Internet infrastructure in place. Many of these rural locations are not wired for Internet access. That’s what’s keeping locations such as Broken Bow, Smithville and Coalgate, Oklahoma, which contain Independent Elder housing, from joining Bakoshe, Talihina and Quinton in their access to connectivity. Logan said the infrastructure has to be finished first.

"They’re waiting to build (the infrastructure) on those projects," Logan said. "… After we finish all the affordable rental units, which there are six sites, we’ll go to our Independent Elder units, then we’ll go to our 202 units, which are also elderly."

This infrastructure and the Internet provided are funded in part by a $52,000 grant to aid with service costs and router fees.

In the meantime, Logan is busy passing out free tablets that were donated through GetHub as part of the Internet initiative. He said all the children in the affordable housing sites receive free tablets to use with their new Internet.

"Ultimately, we may end up helping kids that wouldn’t necessarily have had the help they needed," Logan said.

Quinton, Oklahoma, resident Sabrina Adcock could agree with that statement. With her new Internet access, she was able to turn in her son’s applications for college scholarships. She received connectivity this week, just when her son’s applications were due.

"That was perfect timing," she said with a laugh. "… Everything, of course, is online, so it definitely helps."

Before, she said, there were some complications when she or her kids needed the Internet, especially for school assignments.

"(We had to try) to figure out where to go, like we’d have to go to the school and use their computers when we’d have time or when they’d have one available," Adcock said. "… (My kids) don’t have to go hunt down somebody that has Internet and do their homework online, now they can just do it here."