What We Can Learn From the Low-Cost Option That Was, Then Wasn’t, Then Was Again

Few people dispute the vital importance of affordability in closing the digital divide. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found that nearly half of all people without broadband cited cost as a barrier, with 20 percent listing cost as the primary reason for not subscribing to broadband service. Research from EducationSuperHighway pegged that number even higher, estimating that lack of affordability explained about two thirds of the remaining digital divide in the country. As the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program steams ahead, questions about affordability have come to the fore. BEAD’s low-cost plan requirement sought to ease such concerns about affordability. But, an unusually public disagreement between Virginia and the federal agency administering BEAD has made the low-cost requirement a hot topic.