Raise The Speed Limit: Assuring The Right To Affordable Broadband

[Commentary] The problem with high-speed Internet in the US is not availability or speed, but affordability.

A recent report from the Pew Research Internet Project shows that while 91 percent of the US adults in households with incomes greater than $75,000 per year use high-speed Internet at home, the number drops to 52 percent for those with yearly income below $30,000. This is not surprising. According to a report from the Open Technology Institute, the cost of a 25-50Mbps broadband service in Los Angeles (CA) is $70 or about 2.8 times more expensive than in London (UK). Community-owned broadband, if allowed, could offer an alternative when the market does not generate a healthy level of competition and the new BroadbandUSA initiative can help these services succeed.

This is not the only model, of course. Different countries around the world have taken a number of paths toward available, fast and affordable broadband, with different forms of private/public partnerships and levels of government incentive. Whatever the plan and whoever initiates it, ensuring broadband affordability is long overdue; it is rather urgent.

[Fabián Bustamante is a Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University]