Who Really Pays What for Internet Service? The Answer Is: Who Knows?

Since Congress established the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, the media, government officials, and the public want to know how much funding will be available, which technologies will be deployed, and how the program will be administered. Often lost in the shuffle, however, are important steps Congress took to address long-standing challenges to equitable broadband access to ensure that funds received by state broadband offices are used to advance the BEAD program’s goals. Among the steps are stricter requirements for state broadband officials to follow when distributing federal funds to internet service providers (ISPs) and when collecting data for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, including measures for tackling affordability concerns. These reporting requirements underscore the need for state broadband offices to have accurate pricing data to help inform their implementation of BEAD and other federal programs and policies. But no definitive source for what consumers pay for broadband service exists. This has led some researchers and advocates to rely on imprecise Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sources when assessing year-over-year changes to broadband pricing in each state.