January 22, 2025
‘Broadband 2025: Building the Future Faster’
Range of priority broadband policy recommendations for President Trump and new Congress to fast-track American connectivity goals
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, USTelecom | The Broadband Association sent a letter to President Donald Trump and the 119th Congress outlining six concrete actions that can be taken quickly to speed up connectivity to all in America.
‘Broadband 2025: Building the Future Faster’ outlines a series of key policy priorities with specific recommendations and strategies to advance each goal in the first 100 days:
- Champion the Networks of the Future
- Secure and Reform Universal Service
- Put the Pedal to the Metal on Broadband Deployment
- Review All Legacy Regulations with Fresh, Modern Eyes
- Break the Federal Permitting Log Jam
- Model Efficient, Effective Government on Cybersecurity
Jonathan Spalter, USTelecom’s president and CEO opened the report with a letter to President Trump and incoming members of the 119th Congress:
“On behalf of USTelecom members and the hundreds of thousands of people they employ who design, build and manage our nation’s world-class broadband networks, I congratulate you as you answer the call to public service and begin your term in office.
As innovators and connectors, we also extend our hand in partnership as we work together to shape new policies for a new era of American innovation.
The broadband technology we deliver offers policymakers the most responsive, efficient and effective means available to meet the critical needs of our citizens, our communities and our economy. From strengthening U.S. competitiveness, to fostering resilience in the wake of natural disasters, to unlocking the possibilities of AI, to delivering world-class education and healthcare, ever stronger, faster and more resilient broadband networks are essential to virtually all progress.
Broadband providers have delivered a strong foundation to build on. Our sector invested nearly $95 billion last year in U.S. communications infrastructure, committing over $2 trillion of private capital since 1996. Since 2015, as inflation ate away at household purchasing power with rising grocery prices, rents and energy bills, prices for the most popular broadband services actually declined by roughly 60%.
This progress is fueled by the fact that consumers have an abundance of broadband service choices today – from wired to mobile and fixed wireless to satellite and beyond – all competing to attract and keep customers. From a policy standpoint, broadband’s transformative contributions have occurred not because of, but in spite of, profoundly outmoded government policies, which over time have too often revealed themselves as a feature, not a bug of U.S. innovation policy.
It is time to turn the page.
The good news? As the saying goes, there are few challenges that can’t be solved by turning things on and off again. A hard reset of the relationship between government and the private sector, and how they work efficiently and dynamically together to advance U.S. interests, is long overdue.
What follows are actions that can be taken quickly to exercise bold leadership and put our nation on the fast track toward unlocking the future faster. Broadband providers stand ready to roll up our sleeves and work with the new Administration and Congress to get the job done.“