Jonathan Spalter

Congress and the White House are increasingly rallying around a major national priority: building America faster. The recently introduced Build AMERICA 250 Act, which would invest heavily in roads, bridges, transit and broadband, reflects growing bipartisan recognition that the United States must modernize critical infrastructure to continue leading a fast-changing world.

USTelecom’s annual Broadband Pricing Index (BPI) finds that year over year, real prices for the most popular internet services (100–940 Mbps) fell 6.0%, while gigabit plans declined 4.9%.2 Over the longer term, prices for the internet services most households buy today have fallen 43.6% since 2014,3 even as other mainstay consumer goods and services have risen 36%. Average download speeds, meanwhile, have surged 21.9% year over year and 145% since 2014. For the first time, the report breaks out pricing across three speed bands within the 100–940 Mbps range.

USTelecom President and CEO Jonathan Spalter urged Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to implement recent White House guidance to federal agencies that would expedite broadband permitting on federal lands and help connect more Americans to fast, reliable internet service. In letters to both Secretaries (

Across the country, policymakers are reexamining outdated telecommunications rules that no longer reflect how Americans communicate. Recently, the Federal Communications Commission took another big step toward speeding our nation’s transition to modern digital networks, joining the more than two dozen states who have made this progress a priority. This requires reforming decades-old state rules, such as “Carrier of Last Resort,” that require phone companies to spend billions maintaining outdated copper networks rather than focusing on faster, stronger networks consumers actually use.

Bravo to the Federal Communications Commission—coming off the 30th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act, the Commission has taken a critical step toward releasing consumers from legacy copper networks and the rules that govern them. With this draft order, the FCC is working toward updating rules to reflect reality, accelerating America’s transition from outdated copper infrastructure to the modern, high-speed networks consumers consistently choose and rely on.

Thirty years ago, Washington did something remarkable. In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act—a sweeping rewrite of communications law that reshaped an entire sector of the economy. It was bipartisan. It was forward-looking. And perhaps most striking in hindsight: it showed restraint. The law that helped set the stage for the internet age barely mentioned the internet at all. That wasn’t an oversight. It was wisdom. Back then, technology meant a landline on the kitchen wall, a TV with rabbit ears, maybe a pager on your belt if you were important enough.

In 2026, policy must rise to meet the moment to propel our nation to global leadership in a connected world.

The Commerce Department, which administers the historic $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program to close the digital divide, is currently in the process of approving states’ BEAD projects and has pledged to get money out the door by the end of this year. But without urgent action to fix our broken permitting process for broadband builds, that money will get tangled in red tape before a single foot of fiber reaches rural America.

We are writing to thank you for your commitment to the BEAD program for rural broadband deployment. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that established the BEAD program was passed three-and-a-half years ago—and yet not a single household has been connected to high-speed internet through the program. To fulfill its long overdue mission of connecting all Americans, we urge you to both eliminate the unnecessary and burdensome program requirements imposed by the Biden Administration and enable the States to move forward quickly with implementation.

We spend a lot of time talking about the future—of AI, of the nation’s economic competitiveness, of closing the digital divide. But too often, we’re forced to try and build that future on a foundation of regulations designed for a different world.