Affordable Broadband Now and Later

Today, we face a health crisis that makes plain – again – the importance of broadband to all people in America. As Oliva Wein of the National Consumer Law Center explains, “We’re hearing stories of low-income people without broadband at home traveling to healthcare facilities, risking their health and the health of other people, including healthcare workers, with whom they come in contact. If Americans must stay home, then they need broadband at home.” In pursuit of achieving truly universal broadband service at a time when we know everyone desperately needs to stay connected at home, the Federal Communications Commission should immediately institute provide $50 per month to low-income households to subsidize fast broadband service during these crises of health and economic dislocation. But we must also look past this present emergency and think about long-term solutions for our long-standing problems. The FCC should establish a $10/month subsidy to make fixed-broadband service affordable for low-income Americans. And, as Congress considers funds for broadband deployment, it should require that federally-funded networks offer a low-income broadband service and an affordable $50 service to everyone. Here’s why.

[Jonathan Sallet is a Benton Senior Fellow]