The Cost of Broadband is Too Damn High
For many disabled and low-income people, the internet is a critical utility that remains unaffordable and largely unregulated
It was in March 2020, during the first few weeks of the shut-downs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that my internet started to constantly crash.
My broadband connection, which had always been decent if not top-notch, began to slow to a crawl. This tended to happen during the most inconvenient times — when I was on the phone with a doctor or interviewing someone on Zoom for an article I was writing.
I assumed perhaps that the problem was the surge of people working from home now and using their internet. The speed tests I ran on my machine revealed that even though I was paying nearly $60 monthly for a package that promised 100 mbps, I wasn’t even getting 10 mbps.
If the pandemic has proven anything, it’s that broadband is no longer a luxury good but rather a critical service, on par with having a telephone. COVID has enabled people to work and attend school from home and to access telehealth care. But for many, especially those of us like myself who are disabled, internet services can be difficult, if not impossible, to afford.
