Ajit Pai says broadband access is booming – and he's the only one to thank

Ajit Pai said the annual broadband badessment by the Federal Communications Commission's Federal Communications Commission will show that its deregulation policies have dramatically improved access to the United States. The annual report will also conclude that broadband is being rolled out to all Americans within reasonable and reasonable timescales.

The FCC has not yet released the full report on broadband roll-out and will not do so until the board decides whether to approve the draft in the coming weeks. For the time being, the FCC has only issued a one-page press release containing a few data points and some quotes from President Pai in which he claims that changes to his policy have resulted in these improvements.

But Pai has shown no link between his political decisions and his increased deployment. In addition, the deployment of broadband has improved at a similar pace under the Obama administration, despite Pai's badertions that the FCC's neutrality rules of the network have deployment during this period.

"For the past two years, the FCC's top priority has been bridging the digital divide," said Pai. "We have tackled this problem by removing barriers to infrastructure investment, promoting competition, and providing effective support for rural broadband expansion through our Connect America fund." shows that our approach is working, but we will not rest before all Americans can access broadband and 21st century opportunities for communities around the world. "

Broadband growth was similar to previous years

The data from the draft report covers the end of 2017. The key finding cited by the FCC is that "the number of Americans not having access to a fixed broadband connection and respecting the FCC reference speed of 25 Mbps / 3 Mbps fell by more than 25%, from 26.1 million Americans end of 2016 to 19.4 million end 2017. In addition, the majority of those who have Access to these broadband connections, about 5.6 million, live in rural America, where broadband deployment is traditionally lagging behind. "

Pai's press release also states that private Internet providers have "responded to FCC reforms by deploying fiber optics in 5.9 million new homes in 2018, the highest number ever recorded."

As we noted, the rate of broadband expansion was similar during the Obama era. The annual report last year, which included data until the end of 2016, indicated that the number of Americans with access to 25 Mbps / 3 Mbps home Internet service had gone up from 286.9 million at the end of 2015 to 297.8 million by the end of 2016, from 89.6% of users. the population at 92.3%. In rural areas, the number of Americans having access to these speeds has increased from 37.8 million at the end of 2015 to 43.6 million by the end of 2016, a larger increase than Pai has touted in his new report. Pai cited the Connect America Fund as a source for new deployments in 2017, but that was also true under the Obama administration.

The number of Americans not having access to 25 Mbps / 3 Mbps broadband rose from 33.4 million at the end of 2015 to 24.8 million at the end of 2016, a drop of 26%, according to the report. last year. (As reported in Pai 's new press release, 26.1 million Americans did not have this access by the end of 2016 and it is not clear why this figure has changed since the publication of FCC's report by Pai last year.)

In last year 's report, here is an overview of how home broadband access was improved before Pai became president of FCC:

This year's report will include data for the faster levels than in the graph above. "The number of Americans with fixed broadband access at 100 Mbps / 10 Mbps has increased by nearly 20%, from 244.3 million to 290.9 million," says Pai's press release. "The number of Americans with fixed broadband access at 250 Mbps / 50 Mbps has increased by over 45%, reaching 205.2 million, and the number of rural Americans having access to this service has increased. more than doubled. "

The data in the annual report is based on the extensive data on Form 477 that ISPs must submit on a regular basis.

Pai took credit for the gains of the Obama era

Mr. Pai has gained a reputation in the field of broadband deployments, which has nothing to do with him. In the same report last year, the FCC of Pai claimed that the repeal of net neutrality rules and other deregulation actions had resulted in a ton of new broadband deployments. But as we noted, last year 's report only contained data up to December 2016 – and Pai became president in January 2017.

Last year 's report indicated four "new" deployments to support Pai' s argument. But as we reported at the time, three of these four deployments had been planned under the Obama administration and two more were funded directly by the FCC before Pai became president. All four came from Internet service providers who had announced the broadband expansion before Pai took over, with the network neutrality rules in place.

Pai 's new press release said that the year 2017 resulted in an increase in "equipment costs of broadband providers" after the declines of 2015 and 2016, but gave no figures. As we have pointed out, leading ISPs such as Comcast, Charter and Verizon have all announced a reduction in capital expenditures.

The repeal of the Pai network neutrality was finalized in June 2018, so even this year's report (containing data up to 2017) will not reveal whether the repeal had an impact , unless Pai provides additional data sources.

Millions of people still lack high-speed service

The annual report stems from section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, in which Congress asked the FCC to encourage the deployment of broadband for all Americans and to regularly determine mode. "

If the FCC believes that broadband is not deployed quickly enough, it must "take immediate steps to accelerate the deployment of this capacity by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and promoting competition in the telecommunications market" , says the law. The FCC of the Obama era has consistently found that the deployment of broadband was not fast enough, while Mr. Pai has stated the opposite two years in a row. The ban on the neutrality of the Pai network also baderted that the provisions of section 706 "inviting the Council to encourage the deployment of advanced telecommunications capabilities" do not constitute a true regulatory authority.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a member of the Democratic Minority Committee, yesterday challenged Pai's conclusion that broadband deployment was occurring quickly enough.

"Please, differ," Rosenworcel wrote on Twitter. "Millions of households, in rural and urban communities, do not have access to high speed service – it's a fact."