FCC Moves to Make Broadband More Affordable

[Commentary] Cost. Literacy. Relevance. Time and again research identifies these three barriers to broadband adoption. On May 28, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed to modernize the FCC’s Lifeline program to address the first great barrier: cost. Nearly 30 percent of Americans still haven’t adopted broadband at home, and low-income consumers disproportionately lack access. While more than 95 percent of households with incomes over $150,000 have broadband, only 48 percent of those making less than $25,000 have service at home. Nearly 50 percent of low-income Americans have had to cancel or suspend smartphone service due to financial hardship. Because low-income consumers disproportionately use smart phones for Internet access, this puts them at a disadvantage at a time when broadband access is essential for access to education and information, for managing and receiving health care, for daily tasks like accessing government services, checking bank balances, finding bargains on goods and services, and more.

The coming fight over Lifeline raises inevitable questions over who should help pay for the low-income discounts. The program is funded by fees from telephone companies and consumers. But with the FCC poised to add broadband to the program, it's possible that the agency could ask Internet providers to chip in, too. For the moment, the FCC has explicitly decided not to do so. The agency is waiting for a formal recommendation on the matter from a bipartisan group of state and federal officials known as the Federal State Joint Board on Universal Service. But on the heels of the FCC's network neutrality rules -- which technically open the door to fees for Lifeline and other programs -- industry advocates fear Internet providers would be required to pay up.