Forbes

Is broadband service in the U.S. affordable? This question has dominated public discourse in recent years as policymakers have focused on, and allocated significant resources towards, closing the country’s digital divide once and for all. But determining the “affordability” of something is highly subjective and thus not amenable to a neat one-size-fits-all definition arrived at by central planners.

That universal broadband access is a goal worth pursuing has become conventional wisdom. The risk of being elevated to conventional wisdom is that the root arguments bury themselves so deeply that alternate notions sprout and threaten them. While broadband access touches social, cultural, political, health-related and even spiritual elements of modern life, let’s focus on two: education and economics. That’s where the digital divide can do the most damage. Anyone who has hopped on to YouTube for an appliance repair or software how-to knows the value of instructional show-and-tell.

One of the biggest speed bumps on the road to solving climate change is reducing the mining and burning of coal.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an essential report AFFORDABLE BROADBAND: FCC Could Improve Performance Goals and Measures, Consumer Outreach, and Fraud Risk Management, written by GAO Director of Infrastructure Andr

Across the country, rural households and low-wage workers are stuck with slow or no internet while the rest of the world moves forward with high-speed broadband. Lack of broadband shuts workers out of jobs. People who live in rural areas without high-speed internet access depend on local coffee shops and other public facilities with high-speed internet to fill in the gap. Beyond work, online healthcare, education, and conveniences like online shopping work best—and sometimes only—with broadband. During the pandemic, these tasks became necessities for many.

With a $14 billion appropriation from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has enrolled more than 14 million households in a short period of time and may be the most effective broadband benefit program to date with its direct-to-consumer model. The innovative program offers a valuable policy learning opportunity as lawmakers consider sustainable long-term funding options to continue it. Many features of the ACP reflect guidance from policy academics and researchers that supports a model that allows consumers more options.