Affordability/Cost/Price

In October 2020, 55% of Americans teleworked; 16 months later, in January 2022, full-time telework dropped to 43%, and by October 2023, full-time telework rates had decreased to 35%. Current data, however, indicate that about one-third of Americans are working a hybrid schedule, alternating days at the office with days at home (or away). These trends offer benefits to rural spaces where robust broadband capabilities can support a wide range of telework experiences. Fortuitously, these trends coincide with increasing rates of broadband adoption.

The Michigan High-Speed Internet (MIHI) Office's Digital Equity Plan was finalized in March 2024. Four months later, on July 18, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded Michigan over $20 million from the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program for implementing this plan.

Consumers and policymakers always care about broadband prices. The issue is of particular interest to policymakers now that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has ended and as states try to figure out what the “affordability” requirements of the BEAD grants mean and how to implement them. Such analysis should begin with an understanding of current prices and how they have changed. This analysis uses three sources to consider the cost of broadband to consumers: the Federal Communications Commission’s Urban Rate Survey (URS), the U.S.

In 2021 when the pandemic was raging, President Joe Biden led a bipartisan effort to pass the Affordable Connectivity Program as part of the Infrastructure Act so low-income families would have subsidized internet service. It was especially important to get low-income families hooked up since their children would need to do their schoolwork from home.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals threw federal broadband policy into chaos recently by declaring the Universal Service Fund unconstitutional. The decision threatens to shut down the Federal Communications Commission’s longstanding system of collecting fees from telecommunications customers to subsidize rural broadband deployment and Internet access for low-income households, schools, and other programs. For years, policymakers have acknowledged the need to overhaul the USF because of its ballooning fees, potential for waste, and outdated priorities.

Library Wi-Fi hotspot lending programs (via the Federal Communications Commission’s E-rate program) are a complement to broadband providers and permanent connections at home—not a replacement for those connections, said Larra Clark, Deputy Director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Public Policy and Advocacy Office and Deputy Director of the Public Library Association.

This is the third Federal Broadband Funding Report produced by NTIA, showing fiscal year (FY) 2022 data reported by 12 agencies across 70 programs making investments in broadband. This is the first Federal Broadband Funding Report to highlight trends across three fiscal years of data collected. For the first time, this report not only will release a dashboard of major findings but will also include a comprehensive view of broadband investment data reported across the last three data collections—reflecting broadband investments from FY 2020 to 2022.

The mission of the Indiana Broadband Office (IBO) is to assist residents in need of affordable and reliable broadband connectivity. IBO recognizes that affordability is an important component of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program and that deployment without affordable options will severely limit Indiana residents’ ability to navigate the internet effectively and utilize digital services.

The availability of reliable, high-speed internet throughout the United States has been a focus of policymakers for decades, with the need for an expansive broadband infrastructure listed as “the great infrastructure challenge” of the 21st century by the Federal Communication Commission. However, federal guidelines have never set a benchmark for what “reasonable prices” might mean for residents in each state, and there are no established benchmarks for determining what an affordable level of broadband service would look like throughout the country.

How much power may Congress hand off to the Washington bureaucracy? That’s a live question, so grab the popcorn to read a decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In a 9-7 en banc ruling, it invalidated a “universal service” surcharge added to cellphone bills.