There is a lot of momentum in Washington (DC) and in state governments right now to improve the adoption of broadband by addressing the issue of affordability for low-income communities. To decide what policies will do the most good for low-income households seeking broadband connectivity, it’s important to first understand the existing marketplace. The debate about broadband pricing has largely ignored the specific low-income products that the industry has made available in the marketplace. In short, there are multiple wired broadband options available to low-income households for $20 or less, with speeds up to 200 Mbps. Given these marketplace options, there is no credible rationale for the need for price regulation to achieve the same result. There are three legs to the digital divide stool:  availability, affordability and adoption.  All three must be addressed if we are going to reach the goal of ensuring all Americans are supported by broadband connectivity.

For decades, policymakers in Washington and state capitals have fretted about the patchwork of broadband access in the United States, which has held back economic development in underserved areas and became a major problem during the pandemic. Now, after years of federal subsidies that have improved but not solved the problem, the Biden administration is proposing to spend $100 billion over the next eight years to finally connect every American household to high-speed internet. But solving the problem isn’t just a matter of cutting a big check to fund the installation of fiber pipelines. The nation, simply put, doesn’t even know where its internet black holes are found.

In the debate over rural broadband, one word pops up over and over: utility. Is broadband a service best delivered by private, for-profit companies? Or should it be a utility like electricity, water or old-fashioned landline telephones that are underwritten and regulated by the government? Increasingly, residents of areas lacking sufficient internet access (both rural and not-so-rural) are pressing for broadband to be run more as a utility or a nonprofit, where providing service to every address at manageable rates is the priority. The global pandemic created new urgency to deliver reliable, fast network connections; technologies like 5G, which connects users wirelessly but still relies on a fiber network, have also encouraged these communities to press for fiber, even if a nonprofit, cooperative or local government has to take up the mantle.

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Managing Director announced that the proposed universal service contribution factor for the third quarter of 2021 will be 0.318 or 31.8 percent. The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) submitted projected collected end-user telecommunications revenues for July 2021 through September 2021 based on information contained in the Third Quarter 2021 Telecommunications Reporting Worksheet (FCC Form 499-Q). Total Projected Collected Interstate and International End-User Telecommunications Revenues for Third Quarter 2021: $9.665944 billion.

Sens John Thune (R-SD), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Mark Warner (D-VA) reintroduced the Filter Bubble Transparency Act (S.2024). The bill would require large-scale internet platforms that collect data from more than 1 million users and gross more than $50 million per year to provide greater transparency to consumers, and allow users to view content that has not been curated as a result of a secret algorithm. 

The Filter Bubble Transparency Act would require large-scale internet platforms to:

1. Clearly notify its users that their platform creates a filter bubble that uses secret algorithms (computer-generated filters) to determine the order or manner in which information is delivered to users; and

2. Provide its users with the option of a filter bubble-free view of the information they provide. The bill would enable users to transition between a customized, filter bubble-generated version of information and a non-filter bubble version.

The proposed legislation would make it unlawful for any person to operate a covered internet platform that uses a secret algorithm unless the platform complies with the two above requirements. The Federal Trade Commission would enforce the legislation’s requirements, and it would be authorized to seek civil penalties for knowing violations.