All bound by a simple set of principles, we want to be able to deliver the best quality, highest Speed Broadband to all americans regardless of where they live. We have work to do because there still are americans out there that dont yet have broadband and were aligned to make sure that we can actually provide ubiquitous access to all americans. Its a great mission. Peter what are some of the companies you represent . John than just this month, i was able to fly out to alaska too spend time with alaska communications, flew down from there to western new mexico with western new mexico communications. Both focused on Rural Communities and extending nextgeneration Broadband Services to them. All the way up to companies that are national in scope and ision. From at t and verizon, and centurylink and consolidated. Frontier, windstream. Its a consortium of companies that are very different and different vision Business Models but are bound together by a single vision to get more broadband out to more americans is to do so with smart policies. Peter before we Start Talking about some of those policies, give us a sense open your background. Its a little bit eclectic, isnt it . John than and ill take that as a compliment. Thank you. Ive been in the business of technology for a good part of my career, leading companies both in silicon and in europe internet dian products for consumers. Ive also had the opportunity to serve in government. I was able to serve on the National Security council at the pentagon as the associate director of the United States information agency. I also had the opportunity to lead and launch another olicyfocused Organization Called mobile future, which was based here in washington. Weve recently moved from washington, d. C. From california where my family has been residents for the last 13 years and were really excited to be here. Peter to help us talk about some of those issues, we want to introduce you to kyle daly. He is a tech reporter with bloomberg law. Kyle thanks, peter, and thanks, jonathan. So i wanted to start off you mentioned that the groups that you represent, the companies that you represent had a lot of torque do. Can you talk a little bit about that . You hear a lot on 5g networks. These ultrafast, ultra dense wireless brand band networks. Can you talk about how we get to that stage . Onathan sure. The essential ingredient, the indispensable ingredient to moving forward, not only extending more broadband to more americans but also ensuring our Global Competitiveness is this Wonderful Technology called broadband. Our companies are committed to make the investments, that 3r50eu6ed provide the fiber, the resources, the infrastructure, the net works to get more Broadband Connectivity to more americans. It takes a lot of work. It takes the right amount of investment, the right types of Business Models but it also takes the right types of smart, 21stcentury forwardlooking policy frameworks that can actually accelerate and advance and in cent the innovation and investment thats required for us to move forward to realize the opportunities like 5g. Nextgeneration networks. Kyle can you talk a little bit about those policy frameworks . Obviously there are a lot of levers here. What are maybe just a handful of things that you really would like to see out of congress, out of the administration, out of the f. C. C. , lets say. Jonathan sure. Let me start with the promise of new infrastructure investment. President trump on taking office set a moon shot goal that we actually should be investing up to a trillion dollars to revitalize ask reinvent Americas National infrastructure. Increasingly, we all understand, and it is a bipartisan understanding that broadband is an essential input, not only to the American Economic future but our productivity and also deeply meaningful for so many reasons to our families and communities. So were going to be working really hard on a bipartisan basis with the congress, the white house, with the f. C. C. To ensure that when that plan is put in place, that it prioritizes broadband that we have a broadbandfirst approach when were thinking about any policymaking and any investment. That has two sides. One is money, making sure that the right amount of money is apportioned to broadband investment as part of that trilliondollar pie but also, that we can move forward in a parallel direction to streamline regulations, make sure that we can move more broadband more quickly to more americans by moving from the regulatory overhang of compliance and obstacles that unfortunately have made it more difficult for many of our american broadband providers to invest and to do the hard work of delivering the broadband to their customers. Kyle from what were hearing a bit from the white house is that they seem to be easing off a little bit from making broadband a funding priority in the infrastructure package. I just was recently a at an event here in d. C. Where grace koh, whos a telecom dwrieser to the president says theyre more focused as they think about infrastructure and getting something from congress there on stuff like sighting, making it easier for Companies Like those you represent to actually put equipment and facilities out there and maybe not so much on actually carving out money within that trilliondollar pie for broadband. Do you think thats something you might still be able to get out of congress and the white house . John than first of all, i have to say that grows coe and her colleagues at the white house, colleaguings colleagues at the f. C. C. Are just tremendous Public Servants who are doing great work, ligned together on the idea that we really have to close in our nation, the Digital Divide. Make sure particularly americans that live in the rural parts of our country can live in the opportunities that broadband can bring and that has two policy solutions when it comes to developling a thoughtsful infrastructure plan. One, it deals directly with those issues like grace koh mentioned. Things like sighting. Rights of way, making sure that we have sclocks to speed up permissions, permitting, licensesing licensing. There are all kinds of procedural steps that we can take as part of on a infrastructure plan. But the other side of that coin is we also have to be serious about the ensuring that the right kind of dollars can flow to American Communities to provide more broadband. Those dallas have been flowing effectively through f. C. C. s universal service funds. We believe that direct grant and subsidies can provide broadband to those areas where its economically challenging if not impossible to deliver it the as is an on bli gays. Were standing up to that obligation and im really confident that were going to be able to work with the white house and with congress to structure a holistic plan to make sure we can actually ultimately close the Digital Divide in our nation. Peter jonathan spalter, a report put out by your trade Association Shows private broadband investment has kind of lev leveled off over the last several years. Why is that . Jonathan its actually troubling, peter. I have to say. Weve been experiencing over the last two decades a wonderful increase in the amount of investment our companies, broadband providers, have been making in our nations networks. Its been a trillion and a half dollars of Network Investment by americas broadband provide,. By our members after the u. S. Telecom. Although two years ago when the last f. C. C. Decided to impose 1934 utilitystyle regulation in creating framework for an internet we began to see in a very troubling way that that slope of investment had actually begun to go down and in the last two years weve seen it decrease about 2. 5 billion, from about 78. 4 billion in 2014 to 76 billion today. That is an alarm bell that has woken many of us to the realization that we need to go back to smart policies that will allow us to bend the curve on that investment slope, to create more abundance and then austerity when it comes to our nations broadband infrastructures and if we can put in the right types of policies, move forward with smart, lightertouch approaches, our companies will be incented to go more to investigation in our nations broad band infrastructure. We have work to do to get that done but the steps are being taken today by the administration, by ajid pie as the federal communications ommission, by an increasing community of folks that realize we need to move forward, not backward towards the internet future is a positive sign and were going to try to work hard to advance those efforts. Peter when you look at that 76 billion of investment, where does that money go . Does it go to wires to the house . Other places . Jonathan it goes to many different parts of the Broadband Network that we increasingly rely on. It goes to investing in upgrading and maintaining the bear line infrastructure that connects our nation to the wireless infrastructure. That relies on the fiber that composes our wire line world. It goes to managing these vast networks. It goes to ensuring that we actually have the deployment capacity, the work teams, the folks that are climbing the poles, that are drigging digging the trenches, that are doing the hard work every day of attaching connecting our nation to this indispensable infrastructure, which is called broadband. Kyle i did want to return a little bit to the 2015 regulations that you referred to would be the f. C. C. s open Internet Order, classifying broadband as a Telecom Service and instituting a number of Net Neutrality rules. There have been some groups that favored those rules that have disputed some of the findings like you guys had about broadband investment. They say, you know, that its not entirely clear that theres a direct correlation to the open Internet Order and that its not looking at the whole picture, its not looking at the other side of it, the investment from the googles and the amazons and sort of the companies on the other side of those networks. So how would you respond . Jonathan sure. First of all, u. S. Telecom for 21 years has been producing what is i think broadly considered the god standard of analysis of how much actually our u. S. Based broad band providers are investing in u. S. Based brond band networks. Other groups have come up with their own numbers that have things like 3 billion for smart phones that are bought by a wireless karrer and leased to their customers, 10 billion for investments by another american wireless carrier in plex, for video services, neither of which are actually covered by the title ii regulation. Its very clear if you did an applestoapples comparison and took out those inputs that their numbers would reflect what our numbers clearly stipulate, that the actual investment by american provide broad band providers in our networks have been going down. Its great that certain Internet Companies are making investments in things like data farms, cloud infrastructure, products and services and they should continue to do so. Their total investment is a fraction globally of what u. S. Telecom members actual invest in our network and its got nothing to do with the actual investment that goes into maintaining and uilding American Network infrastructure or broadband investment, but all investment should be encouraged and we should have smart policies that incent more, not less investment. Its all a great thing and were determined to make sure that our companies have the confidence and the line of sight to make those investments in an even more aggressive way going forward. Kyle thinking about Net Neutrality not just in terms of investments but about principles of an open internet, obviously investment but just in terms of principles of an open internet, obviously efforts that the current f. C. C. Is undertaking to reverse that classification to ease back some of those rules. Its got a lot of people concerned. Would your industry be willing to offer any sort of hard commitment to upholding some of the principles that people are really worried could be roded . John atlanta sure. Well, the important point is we need to take a step back from that fear. We live in a very contentious environment and very contentious political moment. The fact is that americas broadband providers, u. S. Telecom members, have made an ironclad commitment to maintain Net Neutrality protections for their customers. No blocking, no throttling, transparency. Those commitments existed before the imposition of title ii and Net Neutrality protections and the commitments to them are going to exist after the reclassification back to title i so this debate isnt about Net Neutrality. Its about whether our companies are very clear about maintaining their commitments to protect the principles of Net Neutrality and to advance those principles. Is debate is really about whether we want as a nation to have our most Important Technology advanced potentially over our lifetimes, maybe in our history with the internet governored by regulators using 1934era rules. An era of the outhouse. Not of the smart house, to guide us forward. Using the idea that the internet should be treated as a public utility. Ive met many Internet Users around this country in this work. Some have great things to say about their internet usage. Some have bad things to say about their Internet Service but i havent met a single Internet User who wants their Internet Service to look more like their gas company or their water company. Peter jonathan spalter, what percentage of the u. S. Population does not have access to broadband . Jonathan its a very small but meaningful and important community. About 13 million americans. Most of them live in Rural Communities. Most of those communities can put broadband to tremendous use creating jobs, connecting to services that would be difficult to get to in health care, public safety, education. We have to all collectively roll up our sleeves and find the right policy frameworks to make sure that those 13 million americans can have access to the benefits of broadband, but thats going to take smart and wise policy. Its also going to take policies that incent more investment on the part of broadband providers and commitments by our federal government to make sure that we can have the resources and the right types of regulatory policy infrastructure to get there. Peter what percentage of americans dont have a choice among broadband providers . John than almost none. Its extraordinary to think that we all use networks right now far called 4 glte. Virtually every single american has access to that network and it was extraordinary to see the rampup period. It was only 18 months to get there nationally. 96 of americans have a choice of least three wireless carriers. Almost 90 of americans have a choice of at least two wire line providers. The competition as we move forward with more investment as we move to 5g networks. Faster, more ubiquitous networks, denser networks is only going to increase and that competition will potentially not only catalyze more choice but also give consumers a range of new products and services and opportunities to do things online that we cant even imagine today. Peter when you get into a situation like were currently having where google and amazon are something kind of a smartdevice spat, does that affect the entire eco system of he internet . Jonathan well, it is an important point. We in the broadband Provider Community were singled out by the last f. T. C. To have special rules apply only to us. The movement now in the f. C. C. Is to establish a new set of Net Neutrality protections that will actually encompass all of the entire internet ecosystem, including Companies Like google and amazon. Our broadband providers in our nation have been very clear their commitments to maintaining Net Neutrality protections regardless of whether there are rules or not set by government. They have and they will. I cant say the same for some of our biggest Internet Companies. Its a bit ironic. Its time for them to catch up and its time for us to move forward with smart, holistic Net Neutrality protections that will integrate not only broadband providers but as importantly, the entire scope of companies that interact with consumers via the internet, including the biggest amongst the internet giants that are out there. Kyle how would you envision Something Like that being enacted . F. T. C. Putshe t. Out guidance saying were going to start considering this end competitive. Are you looking for legislation . Jonathan right now the f. C. C. Is in the process of establishing a reclassification of broadband as a title i information service, and in so doing, the new cop on the beat will be our nations premier Consumer Protection agency, the federal trade commission, which has not only the resources but expertise to ensure consumer the protections across all parts of the internet ecosystem, not just broadband providers. In addition to the f. T. C. , theyre not alone. Theres the body of antitrust law that we have