Telecom Industry Growth

A major flaw in current U.S. telecom policy is that takes a completely backwards approach. Instead of first establishing an infrastructure standard – fiber to the premise (FTTP) – it begins with a level of service standard: bandwidth. That set the stage for years of unproductive debate over what constitutes an acceptable level of throughput for Internet service, mostly measured in bandwidth but also latency. At the same time, bandwidth demand doubles about every three years. What was deemed sufficient bandwidth not long ago soon becomes less than adequate. Policymakers end up chasing their tails, caught on the downside of the bandwidth growth curve and skating to where the puck was instead of where it’s going.

Unhappy with slow and congested bandwidth, telecommunications Americans continually pressure their elected representatives for more bandwidth to support faster throughput, making it one of the top issues for their constituents. Nationwide, the politicians are listening. Hearing their constituent complaints, they proclaim the problem is poor “broadband speeds.” “Better broadband” is the obvious solution. But among them, only Sen. Elizabeth Warren seems to correctly understand the issue. She has put the chips in the correct order in her presidential campaign’s telecom policy. First, it sets forth an infrastructure standard, proposing generous federal grants to electricity and telephone cooperatives, non-profit organizations, tribes, cities, counties, and other state subdivisions to build FTTP reaching every American home. Second, it establishes a level of service standard: symmetrical bandwidth of at least 100 Mbps both directions.