Congress takes steps to improve low-income broadband adoption rates

Building on previous initiatives, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act represents a potentially significant improvement over previous efforts to help low-income families get online. But as always, much will depend on how the Federal Communications Commission carries out its new congressional mandate. The Affordable Connectivity Program will provide $30/month in assistance on an ongoing basis, plus equipment subsidies. There is much to like about the new Affordable Connectivity Program. For example, the consumer choice provisions reduce the soft paternalism reflected in Lifeline and the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, where government dictated which plans low-income households could use. The goal of any low-income subsidy should be to increase the recipient’s purchasing power, so they can participate in the marketplace like any other consumer. For that reason, many (including me) have long advocated for giving vouchers directly to consumers. Affordable Connectivity Program does not go that far, but allowing recipients to apply the benefit to any commercially available program allows recipients to choose the plan that best fits their family’s specific needs. Taxpayers should also appreciate that the program is funded through the traditional appropriations process rather than the opaque and increasingly unstable universal service program.