Digital Discrimination Rules Might Preclude Low-Income Broadband: Economist

The FCC's digital discrimination rules might inadvertently bar ISPs from offering discounted service to low-income subscribers, Phoenix Center co-founder/Chief Economist George Ford wrote Wednesday for the Yale Journal on Regulation. He said Congress in response needs to drop or rewrite the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) Section 60506, which prohibits digital discrimination of broadband access "based on the protected classes limited to income level," including requiring services to be offered on “comparable terms and conditions." Section 60506 seeks to prevent any differentiation in price based on income, so a lower price offered only to lower-income households "could be legitimately argued to be prohibited discriminatory conduct under the FCC’s rules," he said. The affordable connectivity program plans offered today, the low-cost plans offered by ISPs prior to ACP, and the low-cost offerings required by the broadband equity, access and deployment program seem "to constitute a prima facia case of prohibited discrimination under the plain terms of the IIJA and the FCC's rules," he said.