How Can the United States Address Broadband Affordability?

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for high-speed internet access in Americans’ homes and elevated debate about the cost and affordability of connections and devices. Congress responded with emergency measures designed to keep households online. Lawmakers enacted two laws: the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), both of which included provisions for improving affordability and transparency in the broadband marketplace. These policies are informed by research and lessons learned by broadband practitioners over many years on how to address barriers to broadband access and adoption. As the field continues to evolve, policymakers at various levels must remember that broadband affordability can be divided into two separate challenges: high average monthly costs for home broadband connections across the board, and cost as a barrier to adoption for low-income families. These two distinct but interrelated challenges require not only more research, but also different policy solutions.

Addressing affordability for all broadband consumers requires supply-side solutions—steps that reduce the cost of building networks and delivering service to American homes. The field will benefit from research into different models of deployment and ways in which they affect consumer costs. These efforts should include research on the effects of competition on consumer prices in broadband markets. Finally, improving affordability for all consumers requires more transparency to help customers understand the cost of the service they are purchasing. But these will not fully address the challenge of affordability as a barrier to adoption for low-income households. Doing so will require demand-side policy interventions that remove cost as a barrier, such as policies and programs that help cover the cost of both connections and devices, as well as efforts to help connect households with those programs.

[Anna Read is senior officer of the Broadband Access Initiative at Pew Charitable Trusts.]