Better together: Broadband deployment and broadband competition

Who has access to broadband in America, and who reaps the benefits of broadband competition? Data from a recent Federal Communications Commission study provides insights into both important questions.

First, the importance of access. For the very first time, the FCC concluded in 2015 that the disparity between urban and rural access to broadband provided the basis for direct agency action. Time has proven that conclusion right – and increasingly important. As my colleague Nicol Turner-Lee recognized immediately after the 2016 election, the Americans who lack access to broadband services – more rural, more middle income, less likely to have attended college – are the same ones who voted for change in economic policies.

Second, the question of marketplace competition is important as well. It can be tempting to accept the view that, in an environment of scarce government resources and competing interests, merely ensuring broadband access from a single provider is enough – especially as an improvement on a status quo with little or no access at all. History tells a cautionary tale, though. In 1913, the U.S. Department of Justice settled an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T by essentially accepting AT&T’s monopoly in exchange for the build-out of the nation’s telephone system. AT&T worked hard to uphold its end of the bargain, but it was decades before competitive markets were free to serve consumers, stimulate innovation, and avoid unnecessary regulation. In other words, as a nation, we should embrace both expanded broadband deployment and expanded broadband competition. Without competition, the pressure from consumers for better and cheaper broadband will naturally ease, and rural America could fall even further behind.