WASHINGTON — The cable industry — including its broadband and phone businesses and programmers —registered $450 billion on the American economic impact Richter scale in 2018. up $29 billion since 2017. 

That is according to a new Bortz Media & Sports Group report by way of NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, which commissioned the updated computation.

Bortz arrived at that calculation by combining the fact that cable, both programmer and operators, account for 3 million American jobs — direct and indirect — and invests billions to build out its service.

Taking the long view, the report also reports that cable operators have invested $290 billion in infrastructure and a whopping $430 billion in programming over the past 20 years. Not to mention, though it did, $3.5 billion in fees to state and local governments in 2018. 

"In a highly competitive marketplace, the industry's story is one of growth, creativity and innovation," said NCTA. "Its expansion continues to have a significant positive impact not only on the national economy and workforce, but also on the millions of consumers and businesses that utilize its innovative services and features. Billions of dollars annually are being invested to improve the speed and capacity of networks. And, billions more are creating the celebrated shows and TV Everywhere services so viewers can enjoy their favorite entertainment anytime and anywhere." 

Cable programming was well represented at the Emmy Awards, with HBO topping all networks and streaming services with 137 nominations this year, about the same as the Big Four broadcast networks combined.  

It’s in the most remote places that fast, strong and reliable connectivity is most critical — for economic opportunity, education and access to quality health care.

There is no part of our country more reliant on broadband than the state my company serves — Alaska. Nearly 200 communities here in the last frontier don’t have road access, relying on planes, barges and snow machines for food and supplies, and broadband for just about everything else.

An important step in promoting broadband investment is the current effort to roll back 1930s-era telephone regulations imposed on broadband two years ago. Throughout the country, investment in broadband infrastructure fell by $2.4 billion in the wake of this misguided decision.

Thankfully, the Federal Communications Commission under chair Ajit Pai is moving to rectify the situation by requiring internet service providers to be more transparent about their practices while giving the Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s top consumer protection agency, authority to protect consumers consistently across the entire internet. This, in turn, would allow the FCC to sharpen its focus on connecting all Americans to broadband’s opportunities.

Pivot to Rural Connectivity
In doing so, Pai would be wise to focus on reviving under-resourced priorities, such as the Universal Service Fund’s Rural Health Care Program. This program provides essential financial support to rural clinics, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other nonprofit health care providers to help them obtain high-quality broadband connections.

At a time when the broadband revolution holds out nearly limitless potential to transform the delivery of health care via telemedicine, funding levels for this program have remained static for the past 20 years. Indeed, applications for support have exceeded available resources for the past two years in a row. As a result, services in many communities are being curtailed or cut due to uncertain or inadequate funding. The consequences are very real in these towns; for example, exacerbating the challenge of addressing the insidious opioid crises taking root in far too many rural areas.

Consider the Juneau Alliance for Mental Health, a behavioral health center that serves the Alaska state capital, outlying areas and bush communities that are only accessible by plane. The more remote areas receive telehealth services, including treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, substance abuse and mental illness, thanks to a Rural Health Care Program grant.

Without the broadband connections this program makes possible, community members would have to fly to major Alaska cities to see a specialist. Given the vast geography of my state, this would be like asking someone from Washington, D.C., to fly to Chicago for routine treatment.

There is ample opportunity now to fix this. The FCC can immediately increase the Rural Health Care Program budget by reallocating unused funds from existing programs. This would have a quick and positive impact in rural areas, without putting pressure on the overall fund size. Longer term, the FCC should reallocate more resources to this program to ensure critical health services are available to our most difficult-to-reach citizens and care can be consistently administered reliably, efficiently and securely with an eye toward safeguarding patient privacy and cybersecurity.

Bridging the Broadband Gap
Thousands of miles from Washington, the people of Alaska and rural communities across our nation await key decisions from policymakers that will affect their lives in profound ways. Earlier this year, Pai riffed on a famous Ronald Reagan speech, calling for “Morning in Digital America” to “bring prosperity and hope to millions of Americans currently trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide.”

Without question, broadband is our bridge to the other side. Rural Americans need access to broadband for education, jobs and health care, and they deserve a heightened focus and commitment from their government to helping achieve these basic objectives. With the FCC prioritizing rural broadband deployment and
reinvigorating under-resourced efforts like the Rural Health Care Program, our nation has a real opportunity to cross the digital divide and truly unite behind the many untapped opportunities broadband can unlock for us all.

Anand Vadapalli is president and CEO of Alaska Communications Systems and chair of USTelecom, which represents broadband companies across the nation. Image: Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, by George Burba/Thinkstock.

President Donald Trump has signaled that broadband will definitely be part of his planned infrastructure investments.

Trump issued an executive order Wednesday (July 19) creating The Presidential Advisory Council on Infrastructure, which will include a representative from the communications and technology sector. The council will report back to the president with its findings.

The members will be appointed by Trump and will represent the following sectors: real estate, finance, construction, communications and technology, transportation and logistics, labor, environmental policy, regional and local economic development, and "other sectors determined by the president to be of value to the council," the White House said.

The mission of the council, whose membership will be capped at 15, is to "study the scope and effectiveness of, and make findings and recommendations to the president regarding, federal government funding, support and delivery of infrastructure projects in several sectors, including surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resources, renewable energy generation, electricity transmission, broadband, pipelines and other such sectors as determined by the council."

That will include prioritizing infrastructure buildouts, speeding approval processes, coming up with ongoing financing mechanisms, identifying public-private partnerships, coming up with best practices for procurement and delivery, and promoting innovation.

The Department of Commerce will provide the administrative staff, facilities and support services for the council. The council positions will be unpaid, though private citizens will get travel expenses.

The impact of Title II on broadband investment was a hot topic of conversation, and dispute, at the Senate Commerce Committee nomination hearing for FCC chair Ajit Pai and commission seats for Jessica Rosenworcel and Brendan Carr.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) cited stats, which have been proffered by ISPs, that investment has gone down under Title II regulations. He also took issue with a New York Times story that investment had gone up since the 2015 Open Internet order reclassified ISPs under common-carrier regs, saying that increase included foreign investment, some of which was spurred by the Title II disincentive to invest in the U.S., and that evidence suggests U.S. infrastructure investment has declined precipitously.

On the other side was Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who said almost half of the venture capital funds invested since 2015, or about $25 billion, was in internet-related businesses, with broadband providers investing $87 billion, the highest capex rate in a decade.

Markey said investment and job creation are high, and so there's no problem that rolling back Title II or reviewing net-neutrality rules would fix.

Both Lee and Markey asked Pai for his take on their respective views, but Pai's answer was cautious given that he has an open proceeding before him and comments on his proposal to roll back Title II and review the rules are still coming in. Pai has long said he would not prejudge items still before him.

He said the evidence of decreased investment was one of his concerns, but that the FCC was testing that theory, as well as the opposite, as part of its due diligence.

Pai also noted that the FCC could have simply declared the old rules harmful, but instead opened the proposed rulemaking to vet and address such issues.

The Phoenix Center has released a new study, backing up a previous study by the company, on the impact of Title II classification of ISPs on telecommunications investment.

The new study, which addresses comments on the study released last month, concludes that without reclassification, investment in total fixed assets would have been about $30 billion more annually, while investment in equipment and property would have been $20 billion more.

"Reclassification has weighed heavily upon the broadband industry for years," said study author and Phoenix Center chief economist Dr. George S. Ford in releasing the new report, Net Neutrality, Reclassification and Investment: A Further Analysis, which updates last month's Net Neutrality, Reclassification and Investment: A Counterfactual Analysis.

"A variety of proper statistical procedures applied to public data confirm sizable declines in investment in Internet networks," Ford added.

Ford said that since 2010 -- when Title II was first proposed by then-FCC chair Julius Genachowski (when ultimately a compromise was struck with ISPs to avoid reclassification) -- investment has been $150 billion to $200 billion less than it would have been without that regulatory overhand and eventual 2015 reclassification.