Report Touts Positive Impact of Fiber Broadband on Local Economy

On February 7, the Fiber Broadband Association published a case study report, "Fiber Anchors Sustained Economic Development, Charlottesville, Virginia." The report examined the impact of fiber broadband network deployment on the greater Charlottesville area, focusing on three economic indicators: private sector job growth, housing value, and digital microbusiness density. According to the report: "Availability of high-speed, low-latency broadband accounted for roughly 35% of Charlottesville's private sector job growth during 2015-2019." The report also credits fiber deployment with increased housing values in the area. And it emphasized the benefits of fiber for "microbusinesses" that have 10 or fewer employees, a domain, and an active website. The findings of the report are based, at least in part, on a comparison of the economic activity of Charlottesville compared with similar-sized cities in Virginia.  

The economic benefits, including job creation, of next-generation broadband networks is also the subject of previous studies. For instance, other analysts have observed the positive economic impact from deployment of 4G and 5G wireless networks and 5G networks. 

 

Local communities hoping to timely realize the full potential of fiber networks for creating jobs and economic opportunities for their residents – similar to how Charlottesville, Virginia, appears to have benefitted – should have in place wireline infrastructure siting policies, including for access to public rights-of-way, that enable timely permit application processing, with permit fees that limited to covering review and processing costs. 

A Record-Breaking Year for Fiber Broadband Buildout

On December 13, the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) filed a brief report with the FCC, "The State of the North American Fiber Deployment." As observed in the report, from September 2023 to September 2024, all-fiber broadband network availability to U.S. households climbed 13% to 76.5 million households. During that period, there reportedly was a record annual growth in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), totaling 10.3 million households. Additionally, all-fiber availability has grown from less than 40% of households in 2020 to almost 60% today. The report acknowledges the significant buildout efforts by several providers, including AT&T, which reportedly plans to reach 50 million households with fiber by the end of 2029. 

The 13% year-to-year fiber passing figure is remarkable and benefits consumers with access to significantly improved broadband Internet service capabilities compared to older-generation networks. It is widely acknowledged that fiber broadband networks are capacious and readily capable of delivering gigabit download speeds that easily meet the FCC's current benchmarks for defining broadband Internet services (currently 100 Mbps upload/20 Mbps download). 

 

FBA filed the report in the FCC's proceeding for the forthcoming 2024 Communications Marketplace Competition report, due by the end of this year. In June of this year, the Free State Foundation filed public comments in the Commission's proceeding, and in July, FSF filed reply comments. In those comments, FSF President Randolph May and I argued that there is compelling evidence that the broadband market is effectively competitive. The report filed by FBA provides further confirming evidence for FSF's view.

 

Credit goes to the super-informed and knowledgeable Ted Hearn of Policyband for calling attention to FBA's filing.