Benton: Affordability Blocks FCC’s Connectivity Goals

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2024 – As federal regulators prepare their latest report on the state of internet access across the U.S., one organization has sounded the alarm on a key issue blocking connectivity for all: affordability.

As the Federal Communications Commission drafts its annual Section 706 report to determine whether “advanced telecommunications capabilities are accessible to all Americans in a timely and reasonable fashion,” the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society argued the FCC must acknowledge affordability as a major barrier.

Benton’s filing – submitted by senior fellow John Horrigan, senior counsel Andrew Jay Schwartzman, and executive editor Kevin Taglang – reminded the FCC of its own statement from earlier this year: “if broadband is unaffordable, it is not effectively available, even if it has been physically deployed.”