Jonathan Sallet's Written Statement for the Reimagine New York Commission

The Benton perspective is this: Everyone in America should be able to use High-Performance Broadband, by which I mean broadband connections to the home that are robust and future-proof. Broadband competition is more important than ever because—in our current crises and beyond—America has fast-forwarded into its broadband future. Yet, New York, like the nation, has too little competition in fixed broadband to ensure that all people have the advantage of competitive pricing, quality, customer service, and innovation. By fixed broadband, I mean the kind of connections that go to homes and small businesses, like the typical connections offered by cable TV companies. Normal effects of this lack of competition disproportionately impact low-income subscribers. Here, I am not referring to people who cannot afford broadband at all. Rather, we are addressing the plight of low-income households that do subscribe. Broadband has become a must-have good, which means that demand for broadband is likely inelastic, much in the way that parents at the supermarket will continue to buy milk for their children even if the price of milk increases 5-10 percent.

[Jonathan Sallet is a Senior Fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. In October 2019, the Benton Institute released Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s. This October, we will be releasing a follow-up to that report.]