Biden’s Broadband Plan Is a Good Start—but America Needs Guaranteed Broadband for All

President Biden’s proposal to expand high-speed Internet access as part of his infrastructure bill affirms that broadband is an essential public service. It embraces the government’s responsibility to counteract the market’s failure to provide adequate Internet access to millions of Americans. By prioritizing universal service, it offers a glimpse of what a more democratic Internet might look like. Although it’s far from a foregone conclusion that the proposal will be enacted, this moment provides us with an opportunity to push policy-makers to deliver on these promises while envisioning something even bolder. For far too long, the broadband oligopoly has caused the digital divide to grow, especially through “digital redlining.” Therefore, it’s important that the bulk of Biden’s proposed $100 billion commitment goes to local governments and nonprofits to build publicly owned broadband networks and not to corporate ISPs. Government has showered big telecom companies with billions of dollars in subsidies over the past two decades to either upgrade or extend their existing infrastructure. Such efforts have consistently under-delivered for the public and over-delivered for the broadband industry. 

[Victor Pickard is a professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, where he codirects the Media, Inequality & Change Center. David Elliot Berman is a doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.]