USTelecom’s Spalter Sets Sights on Bipartisan Support for Broadband Infrastructure

to pivot Congress’s attention back to the idea of a national infrastructure framework,” he said. “We’ve heard figures of up to $40 billion” to bring fiber networks across the country, Spalter said. “A national bipartisan commitment to infrastructure could propel broadband access to all Americans who need or want it.” USTelecom is developing a more sophisticated U.S. broadband map with more data at the granular level. It’s started with maps in Virginia and Missouri with plans to create a scalable database with harmonized and digitized data (see 1903210041). “We have to know where the underserved areas are,” Spalter said, as well as where broadband isn't available at all. He noted that several million Americans may have no access to broadband, especially in areas where the terrain is too difficult to deploy fiber in or where the economics of scale prohibit it. “We’re working with the FCC to close that gap,” Spalter said. He said the broadband mapping data is necessary for regulators to fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities in subsidizing rural broadband expansion. He noted 5G technologies won't likely start in rural areas nor in underserved urban markets, “but it absolutely has to include our rural communities.” Spalter favors the principles of net neutrality but not the Save the Internet Act (S-682), which he suggested would return telco policy to outdated 1934-era public-utility-style rules. When asked about Democratic presidential candidates’ interest in breaking up larger social media giants, Spalter said he’d rather see Congress “break up the difficult red tape” for telcos and establish more shared responsibility by all actors who touch the consumers through the internet, so it doesn't fall more on ISPs.