Enabling Equity: Why Universal Broadband Access Rates Matter

In the third decade of the 21st century, getting online is no longer optional, and providing financial assistance to US households that can’t afford broadband should be as much a given as food stamps. More broadly, from a macro perspective, high rates of broadband use benefit society and the economy; and from a micro perspective, those least likely to be online are those who would in many ways benefit most from it. In both cases, broadband policy should prioritize connecting remaining offline households in order to achieve universal connectivity. High broadband connectivity rates are positively linked to factors such as GDP growth and stability. They enable jobs, promote resiliency in the face of disasters, and support the massive and growing digital economy. Huge online marketplaces of every stripe are subject to network effects: They become more valuable to every user the more users there are. For all these reasons, increasing connectivity rates is broadly beneficial. Broadband enables cheaper, more convenient access to critical resources such as health care and government programs, so people with the fewest resources are often the ones who stand to benefit the most from being connected. From every angle, getting offline groups online—and aiming for as close to universal connectivity rates as possible—should be a policy priority. Doing so requires both completing deployment and increasing adoption rates. Congress and the Biden Administration should sustain funding for subsidy programs such as the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), build economic impact analyses into them, and survey households that remain offline.