California students need fast internet more than ever. Here are the state’s dead zones

Across California, including the Sacramento region, school districts are rushing to resume distance education that will likely require a computer and a high-speed internet connection.

But some districts fall in places with fewer internet connections per capita and may face greater challenges than others, a Sacramento Bee analysis of Federal Communications Commission data showed. The data described subscribers with an internet speed of at least 200 kilobits per second — which is barely enough bandwidth to hold a video call on Skype.

In nearly 500 census tracts, there were fewer than 600 internet connections for every 1,000 households based on an analysis of the data the agency collected on broadband internet subscribers from companies.

The Bee combined it with population estimates from the census and limited the analysis to places with a population at or greater than 1,000 people. The FCC collects the data twice a year and the most recent survey was completed in December 2017.

This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 8:04 AM with the headline "California students need fast internet more than ever. Here are the state’s dead zones."