As schools and businesses closed and hospitals groaned under the weight of COVID-19 patients, high-speed internet access became fundamental to carrying on education, commerce and health care. The conversion to online life was far more difficult in most rural areas and many low-income urban areas that did not have ready access to high-speed service.
Congress and President Joe Biden responded with $25 billion for broadband development under the American Recovery Act and another $42 billion in the subsequent bipartisan infrastructure bill. Every state will receive at least $100 million to help roll out universal broadband. Pennsylvania has formed an authority to distribute the funds and oversee the development.
The project is one of the biggest economic development and social equity projects of modern times. But it will be diminished unless Congress follows through on an equally important aspect of internet access — net neutrality.
In 2015 the Federal Communications Commission voted to regulate broadband as a telecommunications service under the Telecommunications Act of 1934. But a change in the FCC majority resulted in the body repealing the rule in 2017.
That volatility demonstrates that Congress must mandate net neutrality as a matter of law rather than regulation alone. Doing so would ensure that the massive public investment in broadband would ensure massive public access to broadband, rather than allowing internet service providers to control access for their own profit.
Bills to codify net neutrality soon will be introduced in both Houses. Ensuring high-speed internet access, especially given the pandemic's lessons, should be a broadly bipartisan no-brainer.
© 2022 The Citizens' Voice (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
