Adoption

We encourage the Federal Communications Commission to take a broad, meaningful look at broadband deployment as it relates to its use and to investigate data that demonstrate low-income neighborhoods lack fiber infrastructure. We reiterate that the FCC should reaffirm its 2019 Broadband Deployment Report conclusion that fixed and mobile broadband services are complementary, not substitutes for each other. The FCC’s Broadband Deployment Report and Form 477 data collection must also incorporate key

For the past several years, the Government Technology editorial team has picked apart State of the State addresses, looking for clues about new initiatives and areas of focus that will touch technology. As of Feb 3, 2020, about two-thirds of governors have delivered these speeches. Increasingly, governors are using their platforms to underscore the importance of making sure all residents, regardless of where they live, have options to get online. Internet access has profound impacts on opportunities in education, jobs, health care and nearly every other facet of modern life.

In the coming years, 5G wireless Internet stands poised to remake the online world, its unprecedented speed enabling advances in everything from public safety to virtual reality. Within this progress, however, there exists another near-certainty — segments of the population will be left out of the advantages.

The House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a hearing entitled Empowering and Connecting Communities Through Digital Equity and Internet Adoption.

Free Press Action released its 2020 Right to Connect Voter Guide, an analysis of presidential candidates’ positions on vital media and technology policies. It analyzes the positions of nine Democratic and Republican presidential candidates polling at 3 percent or above in recent national polls. Sens Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) stand out for their proposals to invest billions to expand internet access and rein in steep broadband prices that keep low-income families and people of color offline.

In this article we draw on our recent case study research to examine the policy (and politics) shaping implementation of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) and its likely effects on equity of access to high speed broadband (HSB) services. We monitored NBN policy and implementation from 2015 to 2018 through policy documents, reports, and media. We found that equity considerations competed with political and commercial imperatives during the rollout of the NBN.

Even if broadband coverage isn’t the problem in a local area, the cost of high-speed Internet service may still hold back families who don’t have much money.

Current research suggests that low-income people can only afford to pay about $10  monthly for broadband. Anything more competes with other utility bills and the cost of food. Meeting the goal of universal connectivity and providing fixed broadband at about $10 per month requires a multi-pronged strategy - what my Benton colleague Jonathan Sallet calls an “Affordability Agenda.” It includes:

New America's Open Technology Institute urged the Federal Communications Commission to abandon a cynical set of proposals that would weaken the Lifeline program and jeopardize consumer privacy.

Free Press condemned the Federal Communications Commission for waging war on the poor as the agency moved forward with a proceeding to deny essential broadband and telephone subsidies to low-income people.