America’s lack of universal broadband is an outrage

When it unveiled its National Broadband Plan in 2010, the Federal Communications Commission declared that every American should have access to affordable and robust broadband service by 2020, along with “the means and skills to subscribe.” It was the right goal; as the COVID-19 pandemic has made painfully obvious, broadband is key not just to economic growth and productivity, but also to equal access to education, jobs, healthcare and an array of opportunities. Eleven years later, however, as many as 42 million Americans, most of them in rural or remote areas, have no broadband available. Roughly three times that number can’t afford to hook into the lines running down their streets. Microsoft studied internet connection data last year and concluded that nearly half of the country wasn’t connecting at broadband speed. That has to change.

Far more public dollars will have to be spent if we’re going to give every American an equal shot at the services and opportunities that the internet provides. To get a better return on the taxpayers’ investment, though, there need to be strings attached to the dollars. If the taxpayers are going to help build a network, it’s reasonable to demand more proof that the builder is qualified, can keep up with ever-increasing demand for bandwidth and can hold down the price for customers, or at least offer discounts for low-income households. Moreover, networks have to be able to support multiple people per household simultaneously taking online classes, participating in video conferencing and connecting to servers.