The Lifeline Market

The goal of universal service is to ensure that essential communications services are available and affordable for all. Equity remains a bedrock principle: the notion that society should take steps to ensure that all (or nearly all) citizens can use communications networks. However, whereas it was once fairly easy to identify the goal—widespread adoption of telephone service—today the situation is not as clear. Should, for instance, “universal service” include internet access? If so, at what level of service? If internet access is part of universal service, should there be support for computing devices to access digital networks? In the United States today, nearly all households have telephone service. But inequalities become clear when looking at internet access by income. At the upper end of income distribution, it is the norm to have multiple pathways to accessing the internet. The 2019 American Community Survey shows that three-quarters (75 percent) of households whose annual incomes exceed $50,000 have both a wireline broadband subscription and a cellular data plan. For low-income Americans, the story is very different. Just over one-third (36 percent) of households whose incomes are $25,000 per year or less have both wireline and cellular data plan subscriptions. For households whose annual incomes are between $25,000 and $50,000, 52 percent have both wireline and cellular data plan subscriptions.