Insights for universal service policy from Pew’s COVID-19 internet survey

For analysts of digital policy issues, few datasets are more useful and trusted than the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life project, which regularly surveys Americans about internet-related topics. So when Pew released the results of a new survey last week which focused on American attitudes toward the internet and cell phones during the present COVID-19 quarantine, I was eager to review its findings. The survey did not disappoint: Pew’s April 30 report yields several significant insights that should inform the future of our universal service policies.

• Fifty-three percent of Americans stated that the internet has been “essential” to them personally during the coronavirus outbreak, while another 34 percent said it was “important but not essential.” 
• But 13 percent of Americans stated that internet access is “not too important” or “not at all important.” Most households without internet access are uninterested in internet connectivity at any price. The new survey shows that a nontrivial number of Americans persist in this attitude, even amidst a pandemic that has shifted society online.
• Although 87 percent of Americans say internet access is important or essential, far fewer support the idea of universal service programs. Almost two-thirds stated that the federal government does not have the responsibility to ensure that all Americans have high-speed internet access or cellphone service during the pandemic.
• Eighty percent of those surveyed, including overwhelming majorities of Democrats and Republicans, agreed that K-12 schools have a responsibility to provide laptops or tablets to students in order to complete schoolwork at home during the quarantine.