Our new study was released this week ahead of tomorrow’s FCC vote to reverse Trump’s deregulatory approach despite its overwhelming success.
The WSJ issued a blistering critique of the power grab by the Biden regulators:
The FCC on Thursday is expected to vote to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act…
To minimize legal risks, providers will have to ask FCC permission to do almost anything. This will create enormous regulatory uncertainty that will slow innovation and investment. After the Obama FCC imposed Title II, broadband investment fell for the first time outside of a recession.
That changed after the Trump FCC scrapped the Obama rule. Investment and access to high-speed Internet surged. By the end of 2019, 94% of Americans had access to high-speed fixed and mobile broadband, up from 77% in 2015. In 2022 broadband builders laid more than 400,000 route miles of fiber, more than 50% more than in 2016.
Prices fell with more competition. A study by Casey Mulligan and Phil Kerpen for the Committee to Unleash Prosperity found that, from September 2017 to September 2023, the price index for wired internet services fell 11% compared to the overall consumer-price index. The CPI for wireless fell 21% in real terms. The biggest winners from this price decline were low-income households, which pay a higher share of their earnings on broadband.
We would add to the WSJ argument that these new FCC regulations will be tantamount to a regressive tax on internet users with the poor suffering the most:
And continuing with the great coverage, our friends at Fox Business ran this op-ed covering the new report.
You can read the full study here:
