Can actually provide ubiquitous access. Its a great mission. Host what are some of the companies you represent . Guest well, just this month i was able to 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 next Generation Broadband Services to them. All the way up to companies that are national in scope and vision from at t and verizon and centurylink and consolidated, frontier, windstream. Its a consortium of companies that are very different, different Business Models but are bound together by a singular vision to get more broadband out to more americans and do so with smart policies. Host before we Start Talking about some of those policies, give us a sense of your background. Its a little bit eclectic, isnt it . Guest and ill take that as a compliment, thank you. I have been in the business of technology for a good part of my career, leading companies both in Silicon Valley and in europe building media and internet products for consumers. Ive also actually 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 policyfocused Organization Called mobile future which was based here in washington. Weve recently moved to washington, d. C. From california where my father has been for the last 13 years, and were really excited to be here. Host well, to help us talk about some of those issues, we want to introduce you to kyle daley, tech reporter with bloomberg law. Thanks, peter. Thanks, jonathan. I wanted to start off, you mentioned that the groups you represent, the companies you represent had a lot of work to do. Can you talk about that . We hear about 5g networks, these ultrafast, ultradense wireless networks. Can you talk about how we get to that stage . Guest sure. The essential ingredient to moving forward not only with extending more broadband to more american, but also insuring our Global Competitiveness is this Wonderful Technology called broadband. Our companies are committed to continue to make the investments, provide the fire, the resources, the infrastructure, the networks to get more Broadband Connectivity to more americans. It takes a lot of work. It takes the right amount of investment, it takes the right types of Business Models, but it also takes the right types of smart, 21st century, forwardlooking policy frameworks that can accelerate, advance and incent the innovation and investment thats required for us to move forward to realize the opportunities like 5g next generation networks. 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 you really would like to see out of congress, off the administration out of the administration, out of the fcc. Guest sure. President trump on taking office set a moonshot goal that we actually should be investing up to a trillion dollars to revitalize and reinvent Americas National infrastructure. Increasingly, we all understand and it is a bipartisan understanding that broadband is an essential input not only into 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 congress, the white house, with the fcc to insure that when that plan is put in place, it prioritizes broadband, that we have a broadband first approach when were thinking about any policy making 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 trillion dollar pot. But also that we can move forward in a parallel direction to streamline the regulations, to make sure that we can move more broadband more quickly to more americans by moving away from the regulatory overhang 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 broadband to their customers. 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 at an event here in d. C. Where grace coe, whos a telecom adviser to the president , said that theyre more sort of focused as they think about infrastructure and getting something from congress there on stuff like siting, you know, 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 trillion dollar pie for broadband. Do you think that thats something you might still be able to get out of congress and out of the white house . Guest well, first of all, ive got to say that grace coe and her colleagues at the white house, her colleagues at the fcc are just tremendous Public Servants who are doing great work aligned together in the idea that we really have to close the Digital Divide to make sure that particularly rural americans can benefit from the opportunities that broadband can bring. And that has two policy solutions when it comes to developing a thoughtful infrastructure plan. One deals directly with those issues that grace coe had mentioned, things like siting, rightofways of way, making sure we have shot clocks to speed upper missions, permitting, licensing, all kinds of steps we can take as part of an infrastructure plan. But in parallel, on the oh side of that coin, we also have to be serious about insuring the right kind of dollars can flow to American Communities to provide more broadband. Those dollarshave been flowing effectively through fccs universal service fund. We believe direct gants and subsidies can provide broadband to those areas is an obligation. Were standing up to that obligation, and im really confident were going to be able to work with the white house and with congress to structure a 40 to letsic a holistic plan to close the divide in our nation. Host now, Jonathan Spalter, a report put out by your associate sews Broadband Association shows broadband has leveled off. Why is that . Guest well, its troubling. We have been experiencing in the last two decades a wonderful increase in the amount of investment that 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 providers, by our members at u. S. Telecom. Although two years ago when the last fcc decided to impose 1934 utilitystyle regulation in creating framework for our 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 up to the realization that we need to go back to the smart policies that will allow us to bend the curve on that investment slope, to create more abundance than austerity when it comes to our nations broadband infrastructure. And if we can put in the right types of policies, move forward with smart, lighter touch approaches, our companies will be incented to do more to invest in our nations broadband infrastructure. We have work to do to get that done, but the steps that are being taken today by the administration, by ajit pai at the federal communications commission, by an increasing community of folks that realize that we need to move forward not backward in the, towards the internet future is a positive sign. And were going to try to work hard to advance those efforts. Host when you look at that 76 billion of investment, where does that money go . Does it go to wires to the house . Other places . Guest it goes to many different parts of the Broadband Network that we increasingly rely on. It goes to investing in upgrading and maintaining the wireline infrastructure that connects our nation to the Wireless Infrastructure that relies on the fiber that composes our wireline world, it goes to managing these vast networks, it goes to insuring that we actually have the deployment capacity, the work teams, the folks that are climbing the poles, that are digging the trenches, that are doing the hard work every day of attaching, connecting our nation to this indispensable infrastructure which is called broadband. I did want to return a little bit, you know, the 2015 regulations that you referred to would be the fccs open Internet Order classifying broadband as a Telecom Service and instituting a number of net neutral the city rules 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 the investment from the googles and the amazons and the sort of the companies on the other side of those networks. How would you respond . Guest sure. Well, first of all, ustelecom for 21 years has been producing annually what i think is broadly considered the gold statement of how much actually our the Gold Standard of how much our companies are investing in Broadband Networks. Other groups have come up with their own numbers that have included things like 3 billion for smartphones that are bought by a wireless carrier and leased to their customers, 10 million for investments by another american wireless carrier in mexico for video services, neither of which are actually covered by the title ii regulation. Its very clear if you did an apples to apples comparison and took out those inputs that their numbers would reflect exactly what our numbers i think clearly stipulate, that the actual investment by american broadband providers in our networks have been going down. Its great that certain Internet Companies are making investments in things like data farm, cloud infrastructure, products and services. And they should continue, continued to do so. Their total investment is a fraction globally of what ustelecom members actually invest in our network, and its got nothing to do with the actual investment that goes in to maintaining and building American Network infrastructure, the broadband investment. But all investment should be encouraged, and we should have smart policies that incrept more, not less investment. Its all a great thing, and were determined the 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 thinking about Net Neutrality not just in terms of investment, but just in terms of principles of an open internet, obviously efforts that the current fcc is undertaking to reverse that classification to ease back some of those rule, you know, 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 eroded . Guest sure. Well, the important point is we need to take a step back from that fear. We live in a very contentious environment, very contentious political moment. The fact is that americas broadband providers, ustelecom members have made an ironclad commitment to maintain Net Neutrality protections for their customers no block, no throttling, transparency. Those commitments existed before the imposition of title ii, 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 commitment to protect the principles of Net Neutrality and to advance those principles. This debate really is about whether we want as a nation to have our most Important Technology advance potentially of our lifetimes, maybe of our history, the internet, governed by regulators using 1934 era 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 the country in this woul. Some have good things to say, some have bad things to say, but i havent met a single Internet User that wants their internet to look more like their gas or water company. Host what percentage of the u. S. Population does not have access to broadband . Guest 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 policies. Its also going to take policies that incent more investment on the part of broadband providers or 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. Host what percentage of americans dont have a choice among broadband providers . Guest almost none. Its extraordinary to think that we all use networks right now that are called 4g lte. 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 at least three wireless carriers. Almost 90 of americans have a choice between at least two wireline providers. The competition as we move forward with more investment, as we move towards 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 new range of products and services and opportunities to do things online that we cant even imagine today. Host when you get into a situation like were currently in where google and amazon are having kind of a smart device spat, does that affect the entire ecosystem of the internet . Guest well, the it it isn important point. We in the broadband Provider Community were singled out by the last fcc to have special rules apply only to us. The movement now in the fcc 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 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. How would you envision Something Like that being enacted . The ftc sort of puts out guidance saying were going to start considering this anticompetitive, would are you looking for legislation . Guest well, right now the fcc 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 protection agency, the federal trade commission, which has not only the resources, but the expertise to insure Consumer Protections across all parts of the internet ecosystem, not just broadband providers. In addition to the ftc, theyre not alone. Theres the body of antitrust law that we have, the court system. We have 50 attorneys general that have consumers backs in providing broad, general Consumer Protections to them as well. Ultimately, however, the work of insuring Net Neutrality protections, of developing a thoughtful and consistent National Policy framework for this most important phenomenon that we call the internet is the responsibility i would even say its the obligation of congress to undertake. Weve got work to do to push that log up the hill, but i am confident just as we were able to do in 1996 in a bipartisan way where democrats and republicans came together with a common voice and in common cause to develop a National Policy framework that now 21 years later we can do the same thing. Its time. Consumers expect and require and deserve