Congress should move to block the FCC from over-regulating broadband again

Americans hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs made clear last year they want leaders in Washington who will create new economic opportunities in their communities. The broadband industry is an important part of helping get more Americans back to work, so it’s essential for government to foster an environment that encourages more investment in high-speed internet infrastructure.

Unfortunately, current policies don’t do that — in fact, they do more harm than good. But the recent decision by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai to repeal burdensome public utility regulations is an encouraging step that will still preserve an open internet while encouraging needed investment to connect more Americans to a 21st-century global community and economy.

The FCC’s decision last week to move forward on Pai’s proposal should be a welcome sign for Americans in regions like the Rust Belt, where the devastating effects of the decline in American manufacturing have been well documented. Since 2000, Rust Belt communities lost an estimated 700,000 manufacturing jobs — many of which are unfortunately unlikely to come back. But high-speed broadband has the potential to breathe new life in these towns by expanding educational and employment opportunities, extending the reach of existing businesses to new markets and consumers, and providing the connectivity needed for a new slew of entrepreneurs that are part of the digital economy.

{mosads}Driven by massive private capital investment over the last two decades, the broadband industry plays a pivotal role in connecting rural Americans to high-speed internet and all the welfare enhancing services it has to offer. Telecom and cable companies spent nearly $80 billion in 2015 alone to expand their networks and meet the demand for high-speed internet connectivity while supporting millions of jobs throughout the country. And, it’s not just in urban areas. Rural broadband companies recently invested $24 billion in the local economies they operate in.

This type of investment is just what the doctor ordered for the Rust Belt and other rural communities that have been slower to recover from economic downturns. According to economists, the broadband industry, along with the information and communications technologies sectors, accounted for roughly $1 trillion in economic activity in 2014 alone — or nearly 6 percent of the nation’s GDP. These sectors also employed nearly 5 million workers, who bring home an average salary of more than $104,000.

While these are promising figures, there is untapped potential for broadband to deliver more of these economic benefits to more communities. But to do this, federal policies must encourage, rather than stifle, more broadband development in hard-to-connect regions.

Unfortunately, heavy-handed federal regulations like the FCC decision in 2015 to regulate today’s evolving internet networks using utility regulations — which were created nearly a century ago to govern the nation’s nascent telephone industry — is already hindering long-term capital investments. Keep in mind, the broadband industry was already among the most heavily regulated sectors in the country even before the FCC’s unwise decision to regulate it as a public utility.

Regulators may have had good intentions back in 2015, but there are better ways to ensure an open internet without the broad application of outdated rules. Despite the unfortunately overheated rhetoric around this issue in recent years, the truth is that we can have an open internet without ill-suited public utility regulations, which only wreck what makes the internet so great — a force of innovation that connects people and improves lives.

For too long, preserving an open internet has unnecessarily been batted around from one administration to another as a political fight. With a new Congress and leadership at the FCC, it’s my hope that policymakers will find bipartisan consensus on smarter policies that codify shared net neutrality principles and spur more investments in wired and wireless internet networks. Only legislation provides the strongest rules possible — even stronger than the 2015 regulations — because it will stand the test of time and changing administrations.

When Congress does act, I have no doubt that high-speed internet access will enhance some of the most basic tenets of our society in more rural and hard-hit communities — economic opportunity for all, education, and access to quality healthcare through new technologies.

Harold Ford Jr. is a former U.S. representative from Tennessee and honorary chairman of Broadband for America.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.