By Jeffrey Mazzella
The dizzying pace of digital innovation has created once-unthinkable economic possibilities for millions of Americans, and perhaps the only way that progress can be stopped is if government gets in the way.
But that’s exactly what will happen if Congress advances an ill-conceived legislative gimmick that would turn back the clock on Internet rules and slow the expansion of high-speed access to more Americans across the country.
To understand why, first realize that the broadband industry’s investment in the country’s digital infrastructure and its concomitant ability to use the Internet to create economic growth for businesses and individuals has been nothing short of staggering. From 1996 to 2016, together with the media and information technology sectors, broadband invested more than $1.6 trillion in the U.S. economy. In 2016 alone, U.S. broadband providers invested $76 billion in telecommunications infrastructure.