How Internet Service Providers Fuel Inequality

That’s why the next item on the Congressional agenda, and on a prospective Biden administration’s agenda, should be a thorough review of a system in which Internet service providers have no obligation to provide service to the areas most in need. Providing an essential service like high-speed Internet should be a requirement enshrined in law. The big telecom companies don’t see sufficient financial incentive to invest heavily in rural broadband, and no one can make them do it. Congress needs to step up and not rely on the Federal Communications Commission to solve this problem. Lawmakers should start over, beginning with the premise that reliable, high-speed Internet service is a necessity in modern America. It must be both accessible and affordable.

1. More than 100 years ago, the concept of universal service was created to ensure that everyone had telephone service. Bring that back and enshrine it in law.  It is already there in theory, but not in practice, because of the way the telecom laws are written.
2. Enact new laws and regulations that enforce universal service in the digital age.
3. Legislation must ensure that service is not only more widely available but that it is affordable. A number of programs subsidizing service by the telecom companies have proven successful, and they should be expanded and streamlined.

[Art Brodsky has more than 30 years of experience in telecommunications policy and advocacy]