What do You Pay for Broadband?

In the password accessed Members Area you will find maps and charts that show you what you pay for broadband as opposed to what others pay.  Feel free to visit the Members Area at www.members.parss.org.

	Project e-Quality Members Policy Statement The members of Project e-Quality are committed to fighting Pennsylvania’s Digital Divide
Three problems threaten Pennsylvania’s economic growth & high quality of life:

Affordability of high capacity broadband services for businesses, schools and healthcare organizations varies wildly across Pennsylvania and costs significantly more in rural areas;

Access to certain broadband services remains unavailable in large parts of Pennsylvania;

Applications that use broadband tools for useful and productive purposes are underutilized in many communities across the Commonwealth.

Price Fairness Mechanism for High Capacity Broadband Services, that cuts the "mileage tax" and ends the unfair subsidization of urban deployment by rural and suburban customers for the types of broadband most commonly used by schools, businesses and healthcare organizations;

Bona Fide Community Request Program, that allows communities anywhere in Pennsylvania that demonstrate a reasonable level of demand to receive desired broadband services today;

Broadband Development Fund, that promotes affordability, access and applications, to be financed by excess local telephone company revenues that are collected but not required for network improvements in a new and improved "Chapter 30." The fund shall be used for:

Price Stability, for special cases where the Price Fairness Mechanism is not practical to level the costs for high capacity broadband services among urban and rural users;

New Infrastructure, for special cases where the Bona Fide Community Request program is not practical to build required infrastructure necessary for new service offerings;

Statewide Education Technology Network, to connect Intermediate Units and public schools to each other and to their students, teachers and parents for better learning;

Applications, to assist schools, businesses and healthcare organizations in using broadband;

Public Education Campaign, to communicate the benefits of using broadband for economic growth and to enhance quality of life;

Planning Grants, to help communities understand and plan for technology success.

In addition, the members of Project e-Quality support automatic enrollment in Lifeline.