A new report released today by the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) finds that the telecom and broadband industry is providing increased coverage and speeds while absorbing a smaller share of consumer and business expenditures. Meanwhile, Americans enjoy better access to high-speed internet than their European counterparts. The report, titled “The State of U.S. and European Broadband Prices and Deployment” is authored by Dr. Michael Mandel, Chief Economic Strategist at PPI and Elliott Long, Senior Economic Policy Analyst at PPI.
“The data is clear: America is actually doing much better in deploying broadband to urban and rural areas, compared to our European counterparts. We live in an increasingly digital age, yet the broadband and telecom industry revenues are a smaller share of the economy, which suggests these providers are giving consumers and businesses more services for less money,” said report authors Dr. Michael Mandel and Elliott Long.
While some in the United States claim the broadband industry is performing poorly compared with the other side of the Atlantic, the European Commission’s International Digital Economy and Society Connectivity Score, which measures fixed and mobile broadband deployment and adoption, fixed broadband speed, and fixed broadband price, found the U.S. to rank very close to the top EU countries in 2018, and well above the EU average.
Read the report here:
The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.
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Media Contact: Aaron White – awhite@ppionline.org
