[Chapter-delegates] Internet affordability in US

[Glenn McKnight]

https://www.benton.org/blog/broadband-adoption-and-fraying-social-safety-net?utm_campaign=Newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid

In 2025, John Horrigan wrote an article
<https://www.benton.org/blog/broadband-adoption-and-fraying-social-safety-net?utm_campaign=Newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid>
for
the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society that predicted that as many as
5.6 million households would drop their home broadband connection due to
the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill. He based that assessment on the
changes that the OBBB will make to federal programs that benefit low-income
families. Now that we are halfway through 2026, there are also cost
increases hitting households that Horrigan didn’t anticipate. The
nationwide average cost of a gallon of gas was $2.81 at the end of 2025 and
is now over $4.00. There are a number of estimates showing that the monthly
cost of groceries for a family has increased by $30 to $45. The real big
upcoming kicker is that health insurance rates, both for Affordable Care
Act participants and everybody else, are expected to be significantly
higher in 2027 than they were this year. It seems there will also be a big
cut in federal support for Medicare prescriptions. There is a nationwide
consensus that we are all better off when most families have broadband and
can partake in the many benefits broadband brings to a household. If we
don’t somehow change the current path we are on, I think Horrigan’s
estimate of 5.6 million households that drop broadband will be far too low.


Glenn McKnight, MA
Virtual School of Internet Governance
Chief Information Officer
www.virtualsig.org
*YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE EDUCATION *
*Mobile  437-237-4655*
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