Affordability/Cost/Price

Lawyers defending the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to manage a longstanding $8.1 billion broadband subsidy expressed cautious optimism ahead of the March 26 Supreme Court oral arguments in FCC v.

Congress is supposed to write the laws, but these days it often prefers to delegate to the executive branch, and then cheer or boo the results. Twice amid the New Deal, but not since, the Supreme Court struck down statutes as abdications of Congress’s lawmaking power. Yet the Court has another chance in the case that the Justices will consider Wednesday, FCC v. Consumers’ Research.

A proposed state law in California would force Internet service providers to offer $15 monthly plans to people with low incomes. The bill is similar to a New York law that took effect in January 2025 but has a higher minimum speed requirement: The proposed $15 plans for low-income California residents would have to come with download speeds of 100Mbps and upload speeds of 20Mbps.

The Social Security Administration said it will no longer allow individuals to verify their identity over the phone but instead require online authentication or in-person visits for those seeking benefit claims and direct deposit changes. Changes are set to go into full effect March 31, impacting more than 72 million Americans who rely on the platform amid a slew of planned office closures across the country. The Department of Government Efficiency’s website says it plans to shut down at least 47 Social Securit

Millions of low-income Californians lack affordable broadband access, limiting their ability to connect to essential services like healthcare, education, and job opportunities. The expiration of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program has left a gap in broadband subsidies, exacerbating affordability challenges for many households. This report examines policy solutions to address broadband affordability, including a $15 per month price cap for low-income households and state-level subsidies. It also explores the economic and public health benefits of expanding broadband access.

The Alaska House passed House Joint Resolution 6, urging the U.S.

Federal law seeks to make communications technology like telephones and the internet, in the words of one older statute, “available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States.” A longstanding federal program that seeks to implement this goal is now before the Supreme Court, in a case known as FCC v. Consumers’ Research, and the stakes could be enormous.

Today’s defining technology is the internet, along with the interlocking digital tools that contributed to and resulted from its inception. Artificial intelligence may well usher in its own technology epoch, but even this branch of computer science is as beholden to the internet — as the internet is to electricity. How and whether high-speed internet access is like the electrification of homes can teach us something. Getting online and knowing what to do once you’re there matters.

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Managing Director (OMD) announces that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the second quarter of 2025 will be 0.366 or 36.6 percent. Contributions to the federal universal service support mechanisms are determined using a quarterly contribution factor calculated by the FCC. The FCC calculates the quarterly contribution factor based on the ratio of total projected quarterly costs of the universal service support mechanisms to contributors’ total projected collected end-user interstate and international telecommunications re

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Board Chairman and Trustee Austin Hirsch announced that longtime Executive Director Adrianne B. Furniss will transition to Benton Senior Fellow and will be succeeded by the Institute’s current Vice President of Programs, Dr. Revati Prasad. Furniss will continue to manage the Institute’s programming in Illinois and advise Dr. Prasad for the rest of 2025. Dr. Prasad will assume leadership of the Benton Institute beginning May 1, 2025.