Should internet access be a public utility

Let us know! The A. About Gizmodo Advisor Gizmodo Store. By Alex Cranz. Illustration: Jim Cooke. Tech News. During the COVID pandemic, broadband has been critical in supporting online school and work, access to healthcare and medical information, and even vaccine distribution. Eighty-seven percent of people reported that the internet has been important to them during the outbreak, and fifty-three percent of people reported that broadband is essential for critical purposes and everyday tasks.

But that fight is about whether broadband should be a common carrier, which is an economic regulation that requires a provider of services to serve all customers and to treat all classes of similar customers the same. Net neutrality rules are a form of common carriage, which can exist without something being a public utility. Treating something as a utility means that the service is so essential that the government has a responsibility to ensure that, one way or another, everyone has fair, reasonable, and affordable access.

Utility regulations typically allow a number of features necessary for broadband, such as universal affordable access and service quality. The reality is, the public overwhelmingly agrees that broadband is essential and should be treated as a utility. A recent study from Consumer Reports found that eighty percent of people believe that broadband is as important as water and electricity.

The necessity for broadband is overwhelmingly clear. My hope is that this virtual year will increase empathy on campus for those who often feel left out and less valued. As part of the lecture, Palfrey called on each to reflect on the Technology and the Public Interest course, and on their experiences of doing their first year of law school virtually.

And we need sustainable solutions that will protect women, LGBTQ people, children, from negative impacts of the new digital era. In closing remarks, Martha Minow , the th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard, thanked Palfrey and the Klinskys for their constructive work but underlined the challenges ahead.

The internet went largely unregulated during its first boom in the early s, an approach Palfrey said many supported at the time. The years since, culminating in the January 6 attack on the U.