The Connection Between Affordability and Internet Adoption in Oregon

Although broadband is widely available in Oregon, it is not universally available. Oregon and the Oregon Broadband Office (OBO) have been laying the groundwork for the delivery of affordable, reliable broadband internet to every household in Oregon. The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program—established by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—is providing the state with more than $688 million to close the digital divide. Among Oregon households that do not subscribe to internet service of any kind, an estimated 16 percent report that a primary reason they do not pay for broadband internet access service at home is an inability to afford service. Oregon’s goal is to remove affordability as a barrier to participation in the digital economy or digital experience. The strategies to achieve this goal include: 

1. Maximizing, to the extent possible, eligible residents’ participation in the ACP as well as the federal and Oregon Lifeline programs by working with cities, counties, tribes, ISPs, non-profits, and other entities to support outreach and enrollment programs.
2. Making affordability an important scoring criterion of all state broadband grant programs.
3. Working with ISPs to encourage them to create strategies since the ACP has now ended so that there will be robust and adequate low-cost plans offered at reasonable prices by ISPs to low-income households.
4. Giving additional points in grant program scoring to entities that make a commitment to offer adequate and reasonable low-cost plans for low-income households statewide, not only on publicly-funded infrastructure.