Introducing the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Seventy-five years ago, in October 1944, my grandfather, William Benton, delivered a clarion call in the pages of Forbes magazine by articulating a forward-looking agenda on behalf of a coalition of business leaders (“the capitalists who cared enough about the system to save it”) to deliver a more peaceful and prosperous American future in the (then-expected) wake of winning World War II. William Benton recognized that American progress rested on the connection between economic opportunity and democracy. “[A] free market open to the development of new, independent enterprises will continue to provide an economic basis for political freedom.” My grandfather created the Benton Foundation to address tough and seemingly unsolvable problems in the field of communications — with a focus on the projects that would have the greatest impact on democracy. It is in this tradition that now the Benton Foundation becomes the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, which continues to work to bring open, affordable, High-Performance Broadband to all people in the United States — to ensure a thriving democracy and lift our free society.

In the coming weeks, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society will offer a new vision and agenda for action, Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s. Over the past year, we've collected the lessons of communities, public-interest advocates, government officials, and industry experts who are working to extend broadband's reach. Our aim is to combine these lessons into a national broadband agenda for the next decade. Over the next year, we will be enlisting leaders from around the country in an ongoing discussion on how public policy can close the digital divide and extend digital opportunity everywhere.

Please join us in this conversation.