Georgetown Law
Technology Review

Introduction

Nine out of ten Americans describe high-speed internet service as either essential or important.1Kenneth Olmstead et al., Americans Have Mixed Views on Policies Encouraging Broadband Adoption, Pew Res. (Apr. 10, 2017), https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/10/americans-have-mixed-views-on-policies-encouraging-broadband-adoption/ [https://perma.cc/AR55-3J2V]. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, during which internet connections served as a primary means of connecting to a socially-distanced world, internet access was considered critical for individual, social, and economic advancement.2My Say, How Internet Access Can Boost the Economy and Social Equality, Forbes (Apr. 25, 2014), https://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2014/04/25/how-internet-access-can-boost-the-economy-and-social-equality/?sh=62c55e332f42 [https://perma.cc/8MDK-U9DN]; see also To grow a digital economy, build an internet for everyone, All. for an Affordable Internet (Mar. 3, 2020), https://a4ai.org/to-grow-a-digital-economy-build-an-internet-for-everyone/ [https://perma.cc/JVU5-SW7K]. More than fifteen years ago, President George W. Bush announced a goal of “universal, affordable access for broadband technology” by 2007.3James Gattuso et al, Broadband by 2007: A Look at the President’s Internet Initiative, Heritage Found. (Oct. 26, 2004), https://www.heritage.org/government-regulation/report/broadband-2007-look-the-presidents-internet-initiative [https://perma.cc/BCJ8-JQSJ]. However, as of year-end 2018, while 94.4 percent of Americans overall had access to 25/3 Mbps broadband, 22.3 percent of rural Americans did not.42020 Broadband Deployment Report, Fed. Comm. Comm’n, 18 (April 24, 2020) https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-50A1.pdf %5Bhttps://perma.cc/VZ2W-6BVM%5D. 25/3 Mbps is the standard metric used by the FCC in determining whether an area has sufficient broadband access. See id. at 6. Critics allege that this is too low of a bar. See Karl Bode, AT&T Fights Against New Broadband Definitions, Insists 10 Mbps Upstream is Good Enough, Techdirt (Mar. 31, 2021), https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210330/07290646515/att-fights-against-new-broadband-definitions-insists-10-mbps-upstream-is-good-enough.shtml [https://perma.cc/5YXQ-MV59].

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