The coronavirus pandemic is breaking the internet

To put it bluntly, our internet is breaking. And it’s not breaking equitably. During the last half of February 2020, our research shows that 1,708 counties (52.8 percent) in the U.S. had median download speeds that did not meet the Federal Communication Commission’s minimum criteria to qualify as “broadband” connectivity. By the last two weeks of March 2020 (following widespread shelter-in-place orders across the U.S.), we found that the number of counties that did not meet the FCC’s minimum criteria for broadband speed had increased to 2,012 (62.2 percent). Don’t forget, these numbers are based on those who had connectivity in the first place. If you added in all the households that have no connectivity, the results would look even bleaker.

So, what do we do about it? 1) Massive new infrastructure funding containing tens of billions of dollars for broadband buildout is expected to be introduced in Congress in the near future. If we want these funds to be deployed and used well, we need extensive, independent analysis of the true state of broadband connectivity in this country. Congress and the Federal Communications Commission should mandate that ISPs provide service to the areas they claim to serve and at the speeds they claim to provide — that alone would lead to far more accurate and precise information being reported (and would cost taxpayers next to nothing to implement). 2) Redlining of minority and rural areas appears to be widespread, and we need accurate pricing data from the FCC to meaningfully address these disparities. 3) Consumers should begin to systematically document when they have problems with their ISPs by immediately filing complaints with the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission. Both agency’s complaint forms take only a few minutes to fill out — so why not file while waiting on hold for your internet provider to answer your call? 4) We need to start assessing why our policies are creating a group of second-class online citizens. We need to promote any and all solutions that will lessen the broadband divide. We need to change our federal and state broadband funding models to ensure that recipients of tax-payer-supported grants and loans can never implement sub-standard connectivity, and mandate that the services offered are at market rates. And we need an actual National Broadband Plan that includes the major investment funding needed to ensure universal, affordable, broadband connectivity for everyone, everywhere.

[Sascha Meinrath is the Palmer Chair in Telecommunications at Penn State University and the co-founder of M-Lab, the largest collection of open internet performance data in the world.}