Thirty House and Senate Democrats unveiled a new $94 billion proposal to make broadband Internet access more accessible and affordable nationwide, aiming to remedy some of the digital inequalities that have kept millions of Americans offline during the coronavirus pandemic. The new effort, chiefly authored by Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), marks one of the most expensive, ambitious broadband packages proposed in recent years. It aims to commit record-breaking sums to bring Internet service to areas where it doesn’t exist, improve speeds in places where connectivity is sluggish and help families who are struggling to pay their monthly bills. Democrats believe they have a viable opening to advance their legislation, known as the Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act, as part of the looming debate over infrastructure reform. Congress is expected to turn to the matter after lawmakers completed legislative work on a $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, which similarly included significant sums to help families access the Internet.

The new proposal put forward by House and Senate Democrats carries a $94 billion price tag, most of which would be set aside for a new fund to build out broadband infrastructure in areas where Americans lack speedy service. The bill gives preference to projects that help rural and tribal areas or those that provide better, cheaper Internet to lower-income communities. It requires that the resulting broadband networks be much faster than what millions of Americans currently have. The bill also sets aside an additional $6 billion to extend an affordability program authorized by Congress as part of a stimulus bill in December. That program is set to start paying up to $50 in monthly subsidies to families in financial need, marking a dramatic expansion of the country’s existing, troubled digital safety net program. The new Democrats’ proposal essentially doubles the program’s pool of funds, meaning Americans will see additional months of aid before the program expires. Other elements of the bill seek to improve digital literacy, help students obtain wireless hot spots and bring more transparency to Internet pricing, requiring the Federal Communications Commission for the first time to collect and make available data on how much people are paying nationwide for Internet access. Other elements seek to make it easier for broadband providers to navigate the digging process to lay their wires in the first place.

Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Jared Golden (D-ME) and Sen Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced the Community Broadband Act (H.R. 1631), legislation that will empower local communities to ensure their residents have broadband access by removing roadblocks for public-private partnerships and locally-owned broadband systems. The Community Broadband Act nullifies state laws that inhibit local governments from building their own broadband, preserving the local right to self-determination in connecting communities. Nineteen states have passed laws that either restrict or outright prohibit local communities from investing local dollars in building their own broadband networks. 

According to a new Morning Consult poll, 27 percent of Black, Hispanic and other non-white adults who make less than $50,000 annually said they have missed at least one internet bill payment since January 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak started spreading in the United States, compared to 16 percent of lower-income white adults. At the same time, nearly half of lower-income people of color (49 percent) said they have at least some concern about paying their at-home internet bill over the next few months, 10 percentage points higher than the share of lower-income white people who said the same. Overall, 30 percent of adults who make less than $50,000 a year said they pay between $51 and $75 each month for internet services, and another 28 percent said they pay between $26 and $50 — meaning qualifying households (no more than 135 percent of U.S. poverty guidelines, as well as free-and-reduced lunch participants, Pell Grant recipients and those who suffered an income loss due to COVID-19) could have most if not all of their bill covered by the FCC’s new subsidy, assuming they end up receiving the maximum amount of $50. Those payment breakdowns are similar among both white and non-white households in the same income bracket. Since January 2020, a third of adults (34 percent) said they’ve seen their at-home internet bill amount change. Among those who saw their charges change, 62 percent said it was because their service provider increased prices, including 79 percent of white lower-income adults and 60 percent of lower-income people of color. Nearly 1 in 5 lower-income people of color (19 percent) said their bill total changed because they upgraded their service.

So far, awareness of the Federal Communications Commission's emergency internet subsidy program remains low, although it’s higher among non-white, lower-income adults: Among all adults, 23 percent said they have heard “a lot” or “some” about the new broadband benefit program, including 17 percent of lower-income adults. Among the lower-income group, awareness jumps 12 points for people of color, with 29 percent saying they’ve heard “a lot” or “some” about the new subsidy.

Rural Northwoods students who lack reliable internet at home will soon be able to connect to their school networks via a drone-powered cellular signal. A Wisconsin startup will be part of a state-funded pilot program in the Eagle River area that will test the use of drones as a way to expand internet connectivity into rural areas. It's a partnership between the new company Wisconsin Telelift and the Northland Pines School District. The drones will be fitted with cellphone towers, allowing students throughout the sprawling Northwoods district to get online, even in rural areas where cellphone service and broadband access are unavailable or unreliable. For now, the pilot project with Northland Pines has relatively modest aims. Drones will likely go up in the evenings to ensure the school's VPN networks are available to students. They can go up in the event of a snow day to help make virtual learning possible. And the pilot project will inform educators about how to make the tool effective — to test its range in the wooded areas of the Northwoods, and to find ways to make the service effective. 

A proposal to move the decisions about rural investment from Washington policymakers to individual rural Americans. If we change the locus of decisionmaking, the power will shift from lobbying and campaign contributions to service and consumer spending. Such a shift would spur rural investment and would also prevent most rural areas from being locked into one technology or one service provider. The following is an updated legislative or regulatory proposal for a new Section 254.

To effectuate access to low-income consumers and those in rural, insular, and high-cost areas, there shall be funds appropriated to the Federal Communications Commission sufficient to provide monthly support to households in rural, insular, and high-cost areas as well as low-income consumers. The FCC shall:

1. Identify the characteristics of Broadband Internet Access Services (“BIAS”) that are widely available in urban and suburban areas with respect to upstream and downstream speeds, capacity, and latency;
2. Determine the level of service subscribed to by a majority of residential customers through the operation of market choices in urban and suburban areas (“Minimum BIAS”);
3. Identify rural, high-cost areas using one of the current FCC models, such as the Connect America Model or Alternative Connect America Model;
4. Calculate an average level of monthly public support (“Monthly Support”) required to facilitate the construction, maintenance and operation of BIAS in rural, high-cost areas, according to one of the current FCC models, such as the Connect America Model or Alternative Connect America Model;
5. Make available to Eligible Telecommunications Carriers the level of Monthly Support for each low-income subscriber of Minimum BIAS and each subscriber of Minimum BIAS in rural, insular, and high-cost areas, provided that only one payment of Monthly Support is available per household, unless a subscriber is a low-income consumer in a rural, insular or high-cost area;
6. To streamline administration of this portable subsidy program, the FCC shall direct Univeral Service Administrative Company to combine the lifeline and high-cost programs into a single program, called the Connect All Americans program.