Adrianne Furniss

This year, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society celebrates our 40th year of protecting democratic values and championing a communications system that works for everyone. Our values of access, equity, and diversity remain the same. But we’ve advanced our mission with the times. We began as an institution focused on the public interest issues raised by emerging communications technologies and on championing long-term public policy solutions to address these issues.

In less than three months, nearly 800,000 low-income people who receive telephone subsidies through the Universal Service Fund's Lifeline program will be negatively impacted by changes scheduled to go into effect at the Federal Communications Commission on December 1, 2021. The FCC needs to change course and help more Americans keep connected to communications services that are essential to navigate the ongoing public health and economic crisis. Most importantly, the FCC should act swiftly and hit the pause button on the 2016 plan to zero-out support for voice-only services.

As the US recovers from one of the worst economic crises in our history, we will be looking to small businesses to revitalize our local communities and hire displaced workers. But these enterprises will need high-performance broadband to innovate and adapt to our new, post-COVID reality. Unfortunately, the Federal Communications Commission's standards are not running apace. The FCC has not updated its speed benchmark for 6 years. 2015's definition of 'high-speed' is antiquated—and it is holding us back.

A sign in front of a church not far from my home has for the past many months read: “We’ll get through this together by staying apart.” As Spring is here and we awaken from more than a year of social distancing, we gather today to celebrate the people who helped their communities come together.

Probably like you, I made sure to make time to watch the Inauguration on January 20. Whenever a President is sworn in, his Inauguration speech sets the tone for his entire Administration.

2020 is not a year we'll want to remember, but it is also a year we'll never forget. For advocates of universal, open, affordable broadband, the tragedies that unfolded this year only increased our resolve: everyone needs to be able to use High-Performance Broadband to survive and thrive in the 21st century. We can't wait any longer to make universal broadband a reality.

2020 has been so dark. In the throes of a pandemic, we know so much has been lost – is still being lost. But for just a few moments, let us celebrate the achievements of digital equity advocates. Because 2020 only proves how essential our work is. Millions in the US have lost jobs this year. But digital equity advocates have helped people find new employment because of their connections to and expertise with the internet.

For all that has changed since the Benton Institute released Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s, this goal remains paramount. In October 2019, we said that connecting our entire nation through High-Performance Broadband would bring remarkable economic, social, cultural, and personal benefits. We said that open, affordable, robust broadband is the key to all of us reaching for—and achieving—the American Dream.

Perhaps there’s no better day to contemplate the critical connection between communications and equity than Juneteenth. June 19 commemorates the day in 1865 when slaves in Texas first learned about the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Cut off from communications, slaves in Texas were deprived news of their freedom for over two and a half years. In our time when information travels at the speed of the internet, it is almost inconceivable that anyone could be denied information so vital to their well-being for so long.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a strategy as part of White House efforts to reopen parts of the country.