CITY OF TUCSON
US $ 4.4m
Of federal CARES Act funds for its Community Wireless Program
32,000
Free internet access provided by City of Tucson
33 %
Of Tucson citizens did not have internet connectivity pre-pandemic
“ DATA IS THE CAPITAL OF THIS CENTURY . WE USE OUR DATA IN A WAY THAT ' S MEANINGFUL … WE WANT TO USE DATA TO DRIVE SMART DECISIONS ”
COLLIN BOYCE , CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER AT CITY OF TUCSON as we move towards becoming a smart city , and we can also recoup the money we ' re spending as a cell phone costs the City US $ 60 a month while the network drops the cost to down to US $ 10 a month .”
Internet access in real-time A staggering 80 % of people who applied to Tucson ’ s program had no access to the internet . Boyce admitted that officials underestimated how many people had no connectivity , which prevented them from using the city government ’ s website .
“ When you have something as major as a pandemic taking place , citizens that don ’ t
mobile-magazine . com 129