GOOCHLAND COUNTY, Virginia Ever since Curtis Brown Jr. got his first Star Wars toy as a toddler, he has been fascinated by action figures. So much so that he has built a business customizing action figures for clients worldwide. But what could be a lucrative career has turned into an exercise in futility that traps Brown and his family in poverty.

Thats because Brown struggles every day with miserable Internet service. The only choice where he currently lives is an $80-a-month satellite connection. Its slow and comes with such a low data cap that he exceeds it within a week or two. So Browns business comes to a halt. He cant afford to buy more data. He cant use his smartphone because the service is so bad he has to go outside to get a signal, and its too cumbersome to update the many websites he uses to conduct his business.

The constant interruptions limit Brown to about $400 a month in profit. Even with his wife Ashleys income from an administrative job with the state's education department, Brown and his three stepchildren have to rely on help from relatives and food stamps to make ends meet. Brown would move if he could, but houses with fast Internet connections are in areas where the rent is too expensive.

An isolated case? Not at all. An investigation by the Center for Public Integrity found that even though Internet access has improved in recent years, families in poor areas are almost five times more likely not to have access to high-speed broadband than the most affluent American households. That means no access to online jobs, and no access to health care advice, education, government services and banking everything needed to be a full participant in todays society. This harsh reality has led to a new kind of segregation.

Internet access, says James Lane, superintendent of Goochland County Public Schools, is the civil rights issue of our time.

A Rope Ladder

Brown sells his custom action figures Gamorrean Guards, Luke Skywalkers and Skeletors out of his living room in a compact one-story brick house at the end of a dirt driveway just off Stokes Station Road in the western part of Goochland County. The neighborhood is about 20 miles west of the tony suburbs and manicured golf courses adjacent to Richmond but it is worlds away. Next door to the Browns: an abandoned trailer home with broken windows and rusted siding.

Nearly every house in the area has a satellite dish bolted on the roof or perched on a pole in the yard. A satellite connection, like the one Brown gets from HughesNet, is the only option for Internet here. But it is expensive and doesnot provide what the federal government defines as advanced telecommunications capability or high-speed broadband, a download speed of 25 megabits per second or higher. Thats the speed both the feds and application developers say is the minimum needed to support both the numerous devices in a household today and the future applications that will create digitally interconnected homes and businesses.