Impact of the Election on the Broadband Sector

Let’s discuss the current Broadband Policy State of Play and how the election may affect it. There are four fundamental goals of broadband policy:

• One, networks everywhere.
• Two, everyone on.
• Three, use the networks to improve the delivery of essential public goods.
• Four, a market dynamic that is constantly driving faster, better, cheaper, easier broadband.

As to the first, we are well on the way to achieving the goal, though more slowly than we would wish. Federal Communications Commission data suggests we already reach the low 90s percent. Between the Capital Projects Fund and the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, however, we are within a few years of getting to the high 90s, if not finishing that job. As to the second goal, we are moving backwards. The end of Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) was the largest step backwards any country has ever taken to widen the digital divide. Having said that, we won’t know how large a step backwards until later this year. I am guessing we will discover that most of those homes that lost ACP have stayed on, thanks to voluntary, private, low-income programs. As to the third, we are making progress and AI will inevitably be an accelerant. But while we are using broadband for healthcare much better than we did pre-COVID, we still have not cracked the code for education, job training, and other public services.cAs to the fourth, there is a big debate. For now, I will simply say that relative to what we had when we did the 2010 National Broadband Plan, it is a lot faster, better and easier. The average download speed when we did the plan was about 4 down. The latest Ookla speed test has us at about 250 down, over 60 times faster. We now have fiber in over half the homes in the U.S., usually competing against gigabit-capable cable; something non-existent back in 2010. And in some places, fixed-wireless competition is fueling another competitive dynamic.

[Blair Levin is the Policy Advisor to New Street Research and a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Metro​.]