The government of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday unveiled the new impetus for a plan to improve Internet access conditions for millions of people in the United States. In a very simple way, it is a program called “Internet Discount Program” through which the government of that country helps eligible households to obtain a discount on their monthly Internet bill of up to 30 dollars, a discount that in the case of homes on tribal lands can be up to 75 dollars per month. For this program, the Biden-Harris administration achieved an allocation of 14 billion dollars with the support of the US Congress.
What is relevant about yesterday’s announcement is that it was made hand in hand with a realistic and serious negotiation with Internet providers in the United States, who undertook with Biden and Harris to reduce the prices of some Internet access packages or else, to increase access speeds for current prices, so that they can offer Internet access packages with speeds of at least 100 Megabits per second (Mbps), at a price of 30 dollars per month.
According to data cited by the White House itself in the statement released yesterday, with the eligibility criteria clearly defined, it is estimated that about 48 million households, out of a total of 128 million households identified in the US, will be eligible for get the monthly discount. For example, a household with four members whose total annual income is equal to or less than $55,500 will be eligible for this benefit. That amount of income is equivalent to twice what is defined as the poverty line for households of four members.
With this program, it is highly probable that the Internet access speed with which Americans who already have access today will substantially improve, which according to the most recent data from the Speedtest Global Index, which is reported month by month by the site Speedtest In the case of fixed connections, the speed at which at least half of the users in the US connect is around 151.46 Mbps, which places our neighbors to the North in eighth place internationally. In the case of connections via mobile networks, the speed at which at least half of the users connect does not exceed 61.12 Mbps, which places the US in 23rd place in the ranking of mobile Internet speeds.
In addition, it is expected that with this support, part of the estimated 42 million Americans who still do not have connectivity in that country will be able to connect to this service for the first time. Because in addition to the 14 billion dollars for the discount program, the White House also managed to assign 65 billion dollars to finance the deployment of broadband infrastructure, resources that will be granted mainly to state or local government projects. .
Compared to what I wrote just last week about how lost the government of President López Obrador is in terms of plans to improve connectivity in Mexico, regarding which the president used as a pretext that, according to his statement, there is still no the technology to bring the Internet to remote locations – a statement that I pointed out is obviously false – it is frustrating to see how a country like the USA, which some might think has already resolved its challenges in terms of broadband access, launches a program with criteria and objectives very clear and simple.
Meanwhile, in Mexico, without having a clear program to improve broadband access coverage and connectivity conditions for millions of families, we are ranked 81st in access speed for fixed connections, and 65th for mobile connections. , in the same Speedtest index. The challenge is enormous, and even more so with a government without an idea.
*The author is an economist.
@GerardoFloresR
telecommunications expert
Economic Momentum