USTelecom – The Broadband Association is out with its annual report on investment in communications infrastructure by U.S. broadband providers. For 2024, the report documents that America's broadband providers invested $89.6 billion in new infrastructure. This brings the total capital expenditure investment in broadband facilities since 1996 to more than $2.2 trillion.
That's a huge amount of capex for 2024 and since 1996. As far as I know, no one has seriously questioned the validity of USTelecom's annual investment reports.
It's not news that it is very expensive – very capital intensive – to meet America's expanding need for fast, reliable, and secure broadband networks. That's what the USTelecom reports have documented over the last three decades. Certainly, America's broadband networks will be essential to enabling and facilitating the burgeoning use of AI. America's economic security will depend on it.
Of course, there is an important policy context that undergirds any discussion of the role of broadband – and continued broadband investment – in America's economy. Given the competitive environment that exist today, there certainly is no need for adoption of any heavy-handed regulatory mandates such as the now eliminated "Net Neutrality" regulations. They stifle investment and innovation, rather than promoting it.
And there is a need to remove permitting and other impediments, especially at the state and local level, that unduly delay infrastructure projects and render their costs unreasonable.
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