For two decades, the U.S. has had a deliberate policy to lead the world in telecommunications. Our nation’s leadership was built on effective capital allocation and innovation of the private sector, and scaled through policy to support efficient government partnerships. But today, we are at a critical juncture. Recently, we have seen a shift away from the deliberate investment-led U.S. policy that enabled us to lead for so long. The future depends on a forward-looking agenda that follows the same approach to support the next generation of affordable, accessible, high-performance networks.
Three areas are critical to get right:
- Sound implementation of the historic opportunity to expand broadband and close the digital divide.
- Re-architecting sustainable and streamlined subsidies for low-income households to ensure universal access and affordability, and
- Establishing a pipeline of licensed mid-band spectrum to sustain U.S. competitiveness.
To truly connect all Americans, private investment must be married with good public policy. Watch AT&T CEO John Stankey speak with industry leaders at USTelecom’s Leadership Summit about the need for the industry to come together around a deliberate policy agenda:
Read Stankey’s full remarks here.
