If Broadband is a "Necessity," What Does That Mean?

Some make the argument that broadband is a necessity and therefore should be a “right.” It never is clear precisely what proponents of that view mean. Is electricity or clean water a right? How about natural gas, roads, airports, food or shelter? 

One guesses that proponents of those positions probably mean that the good in question should be universally available. There is not much room for argument there. 

But we probably disagree about how to get universal availability or universal access, especially  how to pay for it. Government subsidies are the most-common means for getting to universal availability, and arguably the most-common way governments subsidize consumption of products deemed necessary. 

   or that home broadband prices are too high. 

 

source: move.org 

Most governments seem to have policies in place to subsidize consumption of necessary products by lower-income residents. That is not to say the most-effective way to subsidize consumption is to make products available “at no cost.” In the U.S. market, for example, low-income customers can buy internet access at discounted prices. 

But “free” often leads to market distortions and harms production and supply of the product so subsidized. “Tragedy of the Commons”  is the way economists describe the problem posed by “zero price” products. 

Two key problems are created by zero price products: overconsumption and disincentives to increase production. The whole point of price mechanisms is to match demand and supply. So non-zero subsidized prices arguably work better than “zero cost” approaches. 

Oddly enough, some hyperscale app providers have tried to provide some level of basic and free mobile internet access to low-income residents and have been prevented from doing so, on the grounds of “network neutrality” in a direct sense or industrial policy and antitrust issues in an indirect sense. 

Such non-governmental approaches arguably have merit, and perhaps should not have been made illegal by government action, any more than any other ad-supported application or service a private firm can create.