Why It’s Time To Get Over The Broadband Affordability Fixation

Is broadband service in the U.S. affordable? This question has dominated public discourse in recent years as policymakers have focused on, and allocated significant resources towards, closing the country’s digital divide once and for all. But determining the “affordability” of something is highly subjective and thus not amenable to a neat one-size-fits-all definition arrived at by central planners. Nevertheless, there are some who remain transfixed with affordability and wield the issue to justify any number of unnecessary government interventions. This obsession distracts from the critical tasks of removing barriers to broadband adoption and demonstrating to those who remain offline that an internet connection is worth having. It is time to get over this affordability fixation. 

[Michael Santorelli is the Director of the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School.]