Jonathan Spalter

A Permanent Solution for Connecting Low-Income Families

The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has been a transformative force, connecting over 22 million households, but it's in trouble. This proposal would allow this national commitment to continue uninterrupted, bring greater accountability to Big Tech, and create a stable, permanent source of funding that would safeguard the program from the uncertainties of the annual appropriations process. 

  • Step One: Maintain Connectivity- Congress needs to immediately provide stop-gap funding to keep the program operational while a permanent fix is put in place.

USTelecom Letter to House and Senate Intelligence Committees on Cybersecurity and Title II

While this is not the first time the Federal Communications Commission has pursued Title II regulation purportedly to address net neutrality, it is the first time the FCC has reached beyond the no blocking, degrading, or prioritizing principles to which broadband providers already adhere. The FCC is veering into the complex realm of cybersecurity and national security via top-down regulation rather than collaborative partnership, a choice many experts view with skepticism.

A New Mindset

I’m here to talk about why and how against this backdrop we as a nation need to graduate to a fundamentally new mindset with regard to how our government partners with and approaches technology … leaving behind a mindset rooted in fear and articulated through regulatory fiat … and re-rooting in the modern-day reality of an interconnected planet driven by the tools and technology of broadband.

Funding the Future of Universal Connectivity

More than 30 years since the first honk and screech of commercial dial-up, there is a conspicuously empty seat at the collective table of global high-speed connectivity. Six companies account for half of all internet traffic worldwide. These six companies have a combined market cap of $9 trillion. It’s a far cry from their garage start-up days, and without question, they are tremendous American success stories. However, does it still make sense that the government and broadband providers alone fund broadband infrastructure?

42.5 Billion Reasons to Pass Permitting Reform Now

In the wake of the bipartisan resolution on the debt ceiling, Congress now has the opportunity to take another timely and unifying step forward for our nation—one that will help ensure a connected economy in which everyone can fully participate in its many opportunities. Nearly $42.5 billion in federal broadband infrastructure investment is poised to begin flowing to the states. With broadband providers and communities ready, willing, and eager to proceed, the single most intractable barricade remains—the ability of the gears of government to grind all progress to a halt.

USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter at The Media Institute

This is a moment steeped in optimism about our connected future. There are many opportunities to join forces—across government, industry and community organizations. Collectively, we can get big things done. Our current project is to achieve connectivity for all. And, according to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act timeline, if we all hit of our marks, that goal could be achieved by the end of this decade. The question I’d like to pose is this: We have always seen universal connectivity as the end goal.

How Do Government and Broadband Providers Connect the Nation?

Broadband companies are lworking with local and state leaders to bring their resources, expertise, and connections to finish the job of connecting everyone in the US to the power and opportunity of broadband. As they forge alliances to close their digital divide, several criteria are critical:

Broadband: Bucking the Inflationary Trend

USTelecom's third Broadband Pricing Index documents continued substantial price reductions for both the most popular and highest-speed broadband service offerings. Over the past year, as overall inflation reached deeper into consumers’ wallets, broadband prices resisted. In fact, adjusting for inflation, prices for providers’ most popular broadband service dropped by 14.7% from 2021 to 2022. Similarly, prices for the fastest-speed services dropped by 11.6%.

Time is now to expand Californians’ access to broadband

California should follow the lead of other well-managed states and streamline its broadband application process and focus on connecting unserved areas and promoting public-private partnerships. Streamlining California’s broadband application process will maximize the funding that needs to be allocated so unserved communities can get connected to broadband.

Who Should Pay for Universal Broadband Connectivity?

The Universal Service Fund (USF) is currently on an unsustainable financial path, funded by a regressive surcharge on a shrinking base of telephone customers. If it isn’t fixed, and fixed quickly, the fund won’t be able to meet its mandate and fulfill its connectivity promise – not just to the next generation, but to the current one. So how do we fix USF? 

USTelecom Offers Suggestions on Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

In order to move quickly but also deliver a successful and efficient Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, the Commission should make its decisions with the following principles in mind:

First 100 Days: Building Our Connected Future

The first 100 days of a new Administration and new Congress are critical to charting a clear, bipartisan course for our nation’s policy agenda. From COVID relief to budget decisions, take bold and decisive action to finish the job of connecting every American home, business and anchor institution to U.S. broadband infrastructure. Particularly amid a global pandemic, the fact that an estimated 18 million American homes do not have broadband access is unacceptable.

USTelecom Calls for Changes in Lifeline Program

In order to help consumers meet their urgent communications needs during this unprecedented emergency, the Federal Communications Commission should consider the following actions during the COVID-19 pandemic and for a reasonable period thereafter as unemployed and low-income Americans get back on their feet:

USTelecom Proposes Changes in FCC's Rural Health Care Program During Pandemic

In order to provide further support to healthcare providers, the Federal Communications Commission should, in addition to adopting final rules for the proposed Connected Care Pilot Program, consider the following actions during the emergency:

Answering the Call for Rural Broadband

There is simply no business case for investment in many rural areas without more effective public-private partnerships. That is why recent efforts in Washington to target funding and bridge broadband gaps in rural America are so important.  Rather than creating new programs out of whole cloth, we encourage Congress to look to existing federal programs with proven track records, like the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund, as it considers how to distribute additional direct funding resources.

USTelecom: Reinventing broadband mapping is needed to close the digital divide

USTelecom is leading the charge on a new, more precise, approach to broadband reporting and mapping. We have proposed to Congress and regulatory agencies a method to create a public-private partnership to map America's broadband infrastructure so policymakers and providers can better target scarce funding to communities with limited or no service options. Currently, the Federal Communications Commission collects some deployment data from broadband providers by census block.

Modern Regulations for 21st Century Communications Networks

In 1996, Congress required incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) to unbundle and resell portions of their networks to upstart companies at discounted and government-set rates. These network-sharing rules applied exclusively to ILECs in an era before there was substantial competition from facilities-based rivals. Twenty-three years later that expected competition is here. (ILEC’s share of residential local voice markets fell from nearly 100 percent to only 11 percent of US households by the end of 2018.) Yet, these old-school regulations remain in place.

DC Must Help Close Rural Digital Divide

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.

On Pitchforks and Policy

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has a lot on his plate. On top of running a critical independent federal agency, he now must do so under a cloud of hate speech and death threats directed at him and his young children. This behavior is unacceptable in any circumstance, and it is an especially sad irony that it’s being directed at a public servant who has made it his No.

Put broadband first for rural Americans

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission estimated in 2017 that to deploy high-speed broadband to 98 percent of American homes, it would cost $40 billion. For 100 percent, the cost doubles. Which is why greater broadband infrastructure funding — both public and private — is urgently needed in remote areas, where the cost of connectivity infrastructure remains extreme.

Congress, not John Oliver's 'flash mobs,' must determine FCC policy

[Commentary] The Federal communications Commission’s rulemaking process is an important step toward shaping a modern network neutrality framework that doesn’t shackle innovation to a pole erected in the era of black and white films. But ultimately the best place for that debate to be resolved on a permanent basis is through our elected representatives in Congress.

Based on the original coding of our democracy by its founders, they alone have the power to codify this core American value into law, so it is above the reach of the ebb and flow of political tides.

[Jonathan Spalter is president and CEO of USTelecom]

Title II Can’t Deliver an Open, Modern Internet for Consumers

[Commentary] The truth is: Our internet was open, dynamic and growing before the Title II disruption, and it will remain so after. Those who say there’s only one true path to net neutrality need to join the rest of us in the real world where heavy-handed, archaic policies have zero shot at being as quick, nimble, smart, adaptive and transformative as the dynamic and transformative technology they seek to manage.

There is near-universal support for enforceable open internet safeguards. There is no such mandate to regulate US internet infrastructure back to the Stone Age. These are two very different debates that must be kept distinct. Title II can’t deliver a modern, thriving and open internet. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s more surgical approach likely can. It’s time to take the clean and clear win.

[Jonathan Spalter is president and CEO of USTelecom]

Save the internet, skip Title II

[Commentary] Everyone in this country passionately supports an open internet. In many respects, the so-called Title II debate reflects everything voters most resent about Washington: Fear-mongering, Armageddon-style arguments with a dubious connection to the facts. The central fact of this debate is its true subject: This policy battle is not about whether we safeguard an open internet. It's about how we go about doing so.

The application of these retro rules to our modern internet is the policy equivalent of using a sledgehammer to deal with a mosquito on your arm. Technically, it may get the job done. But everything breaks in the process. If we don't want to continue what our nation has long enjoyed — an open, innovating, strong, dynamic, pro-consumer internet, then by all means let's keep Title II. But if we do want to advance the opportunities the internet brings to our economy, nation and consumers — and keep the progress and investment coming—then it's high time we embrace a more constructive path forward.

[Jonathan Spalter is President and CEO of USTelecom.]

Broadband is the infrastructure challenge of the 21st Century

[Commentary] The Trump administration has rightly recognized the importance of advanced communications networks, having included telecommunications in an initial list of critical infrastructure priorities. More than 100 members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, also recently joined in urging President Trump to include broadband within any broader infrastructure initiatives. As our policymakers gear up for action, here’s a simple roadmap for ensuring a brighter broadband future for all Americans:

Build on What Has Worked: Leveraging of the existing Universal Service Fund programs could, if done right, provide the most effective path to ensuring greater broadband access at lower costs and also avoid problems of delay and duplication.

Remove Regulatory Barriers: While the challenging business case for ongoing operations may be the greatest barriers to greater rural broadband deployment, regulatory burdens involving permits, pole attachments, franchising requirements, and rights-of-way can increase costs and cause lengthy delays that in some cases postpone promising projects for more than a year. Streamlining or eliminating regulations and addressing other deployment obstacles could help alleviate these burdens.

[Shirley Bloomfield is chief executive officer of NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association. Jonathan Spalter is president and chief executive officer of USTelecom.]