A Year One Update on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: Making Broadband More Affordable

U.S. households pay a lot for broadband internet access service, more than consumers in the European Union pay for similar service. U.S. households pay anywhere from $50 to $70 to nearly $85 per month for internet access. Consumer Reports examined 22,000 broadband bills and found that the median cost of high-speed internet service was $74.99 per month. Approximately half of the households were paying between $60 and $90 per month. The research also found that bills are hard to understand and make it difficult for consumers to budget and compare prices with alternative service options. One major aim of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's broadband provisions is to make internet access service more affordable so more people can subscribe and use it. A year ago, the law's over $14 billion set aside for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which subsidizes service for low-income households, grabbed most of the headlines. But Congress also required broadband service providers to reveal more service information, including pricing, to consumers as they compare plans. And Congress took unprecedented action against digital redlining which has led to unequal broadband access due to income, race, and ethnicity. A year on, let's see how all these efforts are going.