What happens when something generally seen as a luxury becomes a true necessity for daily life?
Our nation is getting a glimpse into that transition right now as we seek to ensure a "lifeline" for high-speed broadband Internet services.
In the hierarchy of human needs, one widely accepted theory places food, water, clothing and shelter in the most fundamental and motivational position. Safety, education, a sense of belonging and self-esteem are, according to this theory, secondary to satisfying basic physiological needs.
A cartoon I recently saw on Facebook took this structure, known as Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and "updated" it. It drew a new base and penciled in the words "Wi-Fi" at the foundation of the pyramid.
It was a joke, of course — but only to a point.
Wi-Fi, and broadband access that feeds ever-present Internet connections, has become foundational to much of contemporary economic and social life. An issue brief released earlier this month by the White House Council of Economic Advisors cataloged some of these:
Job growth has been concentrated in areas that are more information-technology intensive.
Medical care provided through broadband can improve patient outcomes at lower cost and with lower risk of infection.
Education through online options has been associated with lower tuition costs.
News and information are now primarily delivered over the Internet.
Most significant for current efforts to ensure that the existing Lifeline program for low-income individuals includes broadband access was this finding by the council:
Job listing and job searches have migrated online, and individuals without broadband access suffer significantly as a result.
"The differences in the employment outcomes between households that do or do not use the Internet are statistically significant, meaning there is a low probability that the differences are random," the report concludes.
"The basic relationship — where those households who use the Internet exhibit better employment outcomes — remains even after controlling for a number of demographic variables such as age, education, race, and family income, as well as the number of weeks that the individuals were previously unemployed for."
At a time when presidential candidates are making an issue of income inequality and stagnant wages, it's important to ensure that our country does what it reasonably can to help the neediest to advance and succeed in the economy of today.
And there may be no easier way to do that than to continue the reforms of the nation's Universal Service Fund, which is designed to ensure more equitable access to communications, nationwide.
During the many decades of the AT&T telephone monopoly, our country’s regulators leaned on “Ma Bell” to informally subsidize rural communications by inflating the costs of long-distance calls in order to keep basic phone service cheap for rural and low-income Americans.
With increased telephone competition after the 1982 breakup of AT&T, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 standardized key components of the Universal Service Fund under a single government umbrella. Significantly, the cost of operating the now-$8 billion fund is not borne by taxes, but by fees paid by communications users.
Most of the fund went toward subsidizing high-cost telephone service, on the theory that telephone and electrical service were and are part of life's necessities.
Other portions of the fund were allocated for connecting schools for Internet access (new in 1996), for rural health care programs, and for the Lifeline program — already created under President Ronald Reagan — for low-income Americans to purchase phone service.
For the past six years, the Obama administration has been actively prioritizing broadband infrastructure. Under the Federal Communications Commission, it has been modernizing each of the Universal Service Fund programs, updating them to ensure that eligibility rules include the ability to purchase Internet services.
Now, it’s building on two previous initiatives, ConnectEd and ConnectHome, that have upgraded connectivity in schools and in public housing. On March 9 the White House unveiled its ConnectALL Initiative. The aim is to ensure that low-income Americans have access to the kinds of tools they need to do this as basic and find jobs and improve their skills and education.
In particular, the administration is proposing to enable the 12 million households currently using the $9.25/month subsidy for phone service to similarly use the subsidy for broadband.
But the goal of the effort is more than swapping a phone for an Internet device. The proposals could stimulate greater competition in the market for low-income broadband service. It’s also being supplemented by national efforts to enhance digital literacy skills, to spur foundation involvement in making low-cost computers more available, and to help communities improve their broadband planning.
Cost isn’t the only barrier to the adoption of broadband service. It’s also about helping low-income Americans understand the job and economic prospects that are now only available online. Updating Lifeline is one simple step to help.
Drew Clark is of counsel at the law firm of Best Best and Krieger, where he focuses on technology, media and telecommunications. Connect on Twitter @drewclark or via email at drewclark@bbklaw.com.