Witnesses say cost, access are largest barriers to broadband adoption

The rising cost of high-speed internet access and its uneven availability are the largest barriers to increased adoption of the broadband, according to witnesses at a hearing Thursday.

At a hearing in front of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet witnesses told lawmakers that cost and access are the main factors preventing more people from taking advantage of broadband connections. Carol Mattey, deputy chief of the wireline competition bureau at the Federal Communication Commission said only 65 percent of American homes currently use broadband Internet access, but her agency hopes to increase that to over 90 percent by 2020.

"This is an important and ambitious goal -- for instance, it took 30 years to get from roughly 60% to 90% adoption for telephone," Mattey said. "We are proposing to over just as much ground in a third of the time."

Rivkah Sass, director of the Sacramento Public Library System said visits have increased by 50 percent over the last year as more individuals use library computers to try to find work amidst a regional unemployment rate in excess of 13 percent. She said the library system does not have enough computers or bandwidth to accommodate the rapid increase in demand.

"Yes, cost is a barrier. Everyday someone at the library says they gave up Internet access for cost reasons," Sass said, adding that both the costs of Internet access and the necessity of a connection are growing exponentially, with many services and tasks such as job applications only available online.

Mattey emphasized that public access available at libraries and schools is not a substitute for providing broadband connections to homes and said lower-income individuals, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities face the most difficulties in obtaining home access.

Mattey, Sass and other witnesses including Howie Hodges of the non-profit One Economy said the lack of digital literacy also hampers adoption, as many individuals must first be educated on how to use the Internet before they can take advantage of its resources.

"We are the de facto digital literacy corps," Sass said. "It's what librarians have been doing for the last 15 years."

To address the cost issue the FCC's National Broadband Plan recommends expanding the Lifeline and Link Up program, which provides discounts to low-income consumers for telephone installation and monthly bills, to include broadband. The recommendation aligns closely with a bill introduced last September by Matsui: H.R. 3646, the Broadband Affordability Act.

Matsui said the bill would ensure that all Americans living in urban and rural areas have access to affordable broadband services and applauded the FCC for including it in the National Broadband Plan. Both Mattey and Sass agreed when asked if the subsidies from the Lifeline program would help spur broadband adoption.

However, ranking member Cliff Stearns, R-Fl., disagreed with Matsui that the program is necessary, noting in his opening statement that broadband is available to 95 percent of American households and that 65 percent of the population is using broadband at home. He argued that non-profit groups like One Economy would help boost educaton and adoption without government involvement.

"We clearly don't have a deployment or adoption problem," Stearn said. "Approximately 12 percent of the country says they don't subscribe to broadband because they can't afford it. We need to be very careful, however, and not act on proposals to expand the Lifeline and Linkup programs to cover broadband unless the FCC improves oversight and puts broadband-specific performance goals and measures in place."

Subcommittee chairman Rich Boucher, D-Va., also expressed concern about the broadband maps used to help states monitor availability and make their case for federal stimulus funds. Boucher said the maps rely almost entirely on carrier data, which is often not verified and may overstate the level of connectivity in a region or locality. 

Laura Taylor, chief policy officer for the non-profit connected nation agreed that the maps are often not reliable, which is why her organization believes it is both necessary and worthwhile to verify broadband availability using a variety of methods including on the ground field tests and consumer surveys.

"[Boucher's] question speaks to the heart of the issue, which is the mapping challenge. It shows how critical the verification process is," Taylor said. "Provider data is good, but not always as granular as it should be. We've found that it is well worth it to verify locally."