Remarks of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai at the International Institute of Communications Telecommunications and Media Forum

Today’s topic—spurring broadband investment and deployment—is critical. That’s because broadband means opportunities for innovation, job creation, and economic growth. To meet this surging demand, the private sector will have to take the risks to invest in and deploy broadband networks. And for the private sector to do this, regulators must adopt policies that welcome that investment and minimize the costs of deployment.

For years, the United States did exactly that. Most importantly, we removed regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment and created a free market for spectrum. Those policies—not government regulation—led to massive investments in networks and brought about the broadband revolution we’ve seen here. Unfortunately, however, the Federal Communications Commission has recently put our success at risk. There’s been a dramatic shift towards heavy-handed regulation of the Internet—one that has created tremendous uncertainty and is already resulting in broadband providers cutting back on investments.