USTelecom

US broadband provider capital investment increased by approximately $3 billion in 2018, continuing the positive momentum shift that began in 2017 when the Federal Communications Commission initially signaled its intention to restore a forward-looking regulatory framework for broadband.  According to a preliminary analysis of 2018 company data, USTelecom estimates that US broadband providers invested approximately $75 billion in 2018, up from $72 billion the prior year.

USTelecom, the Independent Telephone andTelecommunications Alliance (ITTA) and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) filed a letter on April 12, 2019 on their fixed broadband mapping proposal.

Patrick Halley is USTelecom’s new Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Regulatory Affairs, the broadband group announced. He joins the association from leading communications law firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP (WBK), where he was a partner advising communications providers and trade associations on strategic, policy, and legal matters. Halley will lead the association’s advocacy efforts before the White House and Executive Branch, regulatory agencies, courts, and other government entities in Washington, DC and beyond.

U.S. broadband providers continue to deploy and upgrade networks to bring consumers across the nation ever-faster service and more competitive choice, according to a new USTelecom and CensusNBM analysis of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) broadband availability data for mid-year 2017. This research demonstrates the real economic impact of broadband capital investment dollars: more and faster broadband for American consumers and businesses.

Broadband investment rebounded in 2017, as a series of positive consumer and innovation policies and a pro-growth regulatory approach helped reverse the industry’s previous spending pullback, according to new research released by USTelecom. USTelecom’s annual broadband capital expenditure report shows broadband provider capital expenditures grew to $76.3 billion in 2017, compared to $74.8 billion in 2016, an increase of $1.5 billion.

In a paper commissioned by NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association and USTelecom, the authors examine communications networks, road networks, and electric power networks as three key network infrastructure industries; and the resulting vulnerability in low-density rural areas with the highest need for targeted subsidies. By the very nature of network economics, each industry exhibits economies of density and each reaches a point at which un-subsidized provision of service in low-density areas is not viable.

In a recent spending bill, Congress made $600 million available for additional broadband deployment to America’s rural areas. The US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) has been tapped to administer these funds through a new pilot program. Without question, this funding is a welcome and needed addition to the growing arsenal now aimed squarely at closing the digital divide to rural Americans once and for all. Private investment, paired with dedicated federal programs, will connect millions more in the coming years.

USTelecom has filed a forbearance petition with the Federal Communications Commission, asking the commission to eliminate a requirement for larger, incumbant telephone companies to offer unbundled network elements (UNEs) at regulated prices. USTelecom President and CEO Jonathan Spalter said telecom unbundling regulations currently enable competitive carriers to lease network elements – typically the copper connection between the customer and the telco central office – at “extremely low rates.” INCOMPAS, an association that represents competitive carriers, sees it differently.