Add Affordability to the Definition of Broadband

When we ask people why they don’t have home broadband, the primary response in every survey is the cost of broadband. So prices be part of the definition of broadband? There is a huge difference between a 100/20 Mbps connection that costs $55 and one that costs $85. As far as the public is concerned, these are not the same product—but we pretend that they are. Of course, there is nothing that scares the big cable companies more than talking about regulating broadband prices. This was the main motivation for deregulating broadband at the Federal Communications Commission—cable companies don’t want regulators looking too closely at broadband prices. But prices matter at least as much as speeds, and for millions of homes, price is everything. I know the big ISPs will say that the new Affordable Connectivity Program will take care of this issue—but it doesn’t. Not all ISPs are going to take part in the program, and many of the ones that do will not market it to customers. Besides, how good a deal is it to get $30 off the basic Comcast broadband product that costs $90? The price after the Affordable Connectivity Program subsidy is still out of reach of many homes and is still more expensive than urban DSL—and many of the homes without broadband today can’t even afford DSL. Besides, there is also no guarantee that the Affordable Connectivity Program won’t die in a few years when the funding runs dry.