Say No to the Biden Broadband Plan for Government Subsidies and Price Controls by SETH COOPER The Biden Administration is preparing to reverse in rural areas lacking access to 25/3 Mbps service has free market policies that have helped millions of fallen more than 46%.” Americans gain access to broadband Internet services. Fiber passed 6.5 million new unique homes The Biden broadband plan prioritizes government- in 2019, a single year record increase. And owned broadband networks with subsidies over and upgrades have continued, as Ookla reports average against private networks. To boot, the plan appears fixed broadband speeds of 194.88/68.23 Mbps for to favor saddling privatelyMay 2021. Also, over 97% of owned networks with price Americans gained access to controls. 4G LTE mobile services with This unhealthy mix median speeds of 10/3 Mbps of subsidy privileges for or better by the end of 2019. government-owned networks Mobile broadband coverage and price controls on privatelyand speeds are even better owned networks would reduce today. Ookla reports average the incentives of private mobile speeds of 84.37/13.01 market providers to reinvest in Mbps for May 2021. infrastructure. In consequence, Significantly, 5G the Biden broadband plan wireless networks are being risks slowing broadband swiftly rolled out by three deployments to unserved national wireless providers Americans, particularly in rural as well as smaller providers. areas. Congress should stick And Americans are adopting to the free market approach 5G services at a faster rate that has been successful in than they did for 4G. This promoting private investment progress is stunning given and accelerated deployments that no commercial 5G Seth Cooper of gigabit and 5G services to networks operated in early all Americans. 2018. Optimized 5G can By a number of reach speeds 10 times faster The Biden broadband plan measures, Americans have than 4G, with peak speeds benefitted from the marketrisks slowing broadband 100 times faster. friendly broadband policies Importantly, these deployments to unserved that have been in place next generation broadband Americans, particularly in since early 2018. deployments were backed by According to the FCC’s strong private investment. rural areas. 2021 Broadband Deployment According to U.S. Telecom, Report, the number of wireline broadband providers Americans living in areas without access to service invested $80 billion in network infrastructure in 2018 capable of at least 25 megabit-per-second (Mbps) and $78.1 billion in 2019. Those are the two highest upload speed and 3 Mbps download speed decreased annual investment totals in the last decade. And more than 3.5 million, or more than 20%, between the according to CTIA, wireless industry investment for end of 2018 and the end of 2019. And between the end 2019 increased to $29.1 billion, up from $27.4 billion of 2016 and 2019, “the number of Americans living in 2018 and $25.6 billion in 2017. 18
RIPON FORUM July 2021
