July 9, 2021
The White House today released its “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” which addresses broadband issues. The Internet Innovation Alliance issued the following response statement:
“The success of the U.S. broadband industry is no accident. The light-touch approach to internet regulation deliberately adopted during the Clinton Administration set the stage for robust investment and innovation that led to an array of devices, services and apps, as well as ever-increasing network speeds. Partisanship stopped at the network’s edge.
“Broadband providers are delivering greater value to consumers every year. Considering inflation, the real price of the most popular tier of broadband service dropped by 28.1% from 2015 to 2020, and the real price of the highest speed broadband service dropped by 43.9%. The cost per megabit of connection speed declined 37.9% for the most popular service and 56.1% for the highest speed service.
“Net neutrality violations have been few and far between, because broadband providers would quickly lose customers by discriminatorily blocking or slowing down online services. The Internet Innovation Alliance supports the codification of nationwide open internet rules that today guide industry conduct, including the designation of broadband as an information service.
“IIA supports the executive order’s aim of protecting consumers and promoting competition in the American economy. We do hope, however, that the Biden Administration recognizes the highly-competitive nature of the U.S. broadband industry, which has resulted in our nation having some of the fastest, most resilient networks in the world. Encouraging continued private investment remains critical to U.S. leadership in 5G and beyond.”