Internet Access Is Needed by Millions of Americans
By: Thomas F Campenni
Tags: Internet Access, Oecd, Infrastructure, Economics

A study by Brookings points out how millions of Americans in mostly rural areas do not have access to the internet.

Estimates are from 18 to 28 million people are unable to connect to broadband. In 2020, this is unacceptable. It is comparable to the 1920s when only 10% of farm families had electricity. There is an American divide with internet today just as there was with electricity a hundred years ago. Cities and towns had a distinct advantage with electricity then. The same can be said about broadband now.

In less than a year, the way we work and live has been transformed. The pandemic has proven just how vulnerable our society is. The only reason there has not been greater economic disruption is the availability of internet. Even our social and educational life would have been much harder to sustain without it.

America has had a broadband access problem for some time, and it does not seem we are anxious to correct the imbalances in the system. In addition to availability, there is also an affordability issue for many Americans. The US internet industry is the 2nd most expensive for internet of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) nations behind Mexico.

The OECD encompasses advanced nations throughout the world. If we were part of the European Union, then we would be the most expensive for the purchase of internet service. The same would be true anywhere in Europe. Our download speeds would rank 7th behind Iceland, Romania, Switzerland, Denmark, France, and Sweden.

As more and more of our society moves online, the lack of availability and the cost to access the internet will hurt our ability to compete. The internet is now an integral part of American infrastructure, and we know how bad our infrastructure is as compared to most other advanced nations.

FDR started the Rural Electrification Administration to bring electricity to all Americans. The federal government needs to do the same with broadband internet access. Too many of our citizens will become less and less educated and economically productive without this basic service.

In the 1930s, the goal was to have no home without electric service. Now our goal should be the same for internet access. It is not enough to have access, but that access needs to also be affordable.

The United States does not have the same level of competition among its internet providers as other nations do. This can be tackled in two ways…either by allowing more access to more providers or through a subsidy. Like so much in America, the government has allowed monopolies to take over entire industries. French consumers have an average of 7 internet providers from which to choose while in the U.S. they usually have 2 different providers.

This is one more important problem facing us as a nation. Reliable internet service is vital as vital today as electricity was in the 1920’s. Without the ability that broadband allowed, the COVID-19 pandemic would have been a more severe hit to our economy. Millions of school children would have lost even more weeks of education to the pandemic.

I guess we add it to the growing list of the things that must be addressed to maintain our standing in the world. I just wish we could cross one thing off that list.