Biden’s Broadband Plan Goes Overboard and Threatens to Undermine Private Competition that Successfully Serves Most of the United States, Says ITIF

WASHINGTON—Following the Biden administration’s budget plan today, announcing a $100 billion investment over the next eight years to deploy broadband throughout rural America, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, released the following statement from ITIF Director of Broadband and Spectrum Policy Doug Brake:

Biden’s broadband infrastructure plan goes overboard and threatens to undermine the system of private competition that successfully serves most of the United States.

No doubt, the United States sorely needs subsidies for rural broadband, but this isn’t an area to turn all the dials up to 11.

If not properly targeted, such a large investment risks undermining incentives for private capital to invest even where it can do so profitably, which ultimately erodes the engine of innovation for next-generation connectivity.