Private Broadband Investment Is At A Near Record High

Bridging the digital divide by connecting all unserved and underserved businesses and households that wish to have high-speed access to the internet is critically important to the economy and U.S. global leadership in telecommunications.  Investment by the private sector in broadband has been a significant factor in getting closer to achieving this objective.  USTelecom’s 2024 Broadband Capex Report revealed that broadband investment was $89.6 billion in 2024, bringing the total to $2.2 trillion since 1996.  The 2024 amount was the second highest following $102.4 billion in 2022.

The private funds come on top of up to $800 billion in federal funding, as now-FCC Chairman Brendan Carr noted in 2021 shortly after Congress provided $42.45 billion in federal funding for the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The multiple federal options and private sector investment, as well as the revised BEAD guidance, explain why states have found $22 billion in savings to date in their final BEAD proposals.  CAGW has noted that excess funds that states plan to spend for purposes unrelated to the BEAD guidance should be returned to the Treasury.

As the USTelecom report noted, private capital and pro-investment policies (which include provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act like immediate expensing of capital investment) will continue to be critical in the construction and deployment of infrastructure and the expansion of innovation that is needed to connect unserved and underserved communities.