An FCC decision to take over pricing of business broadband services could eliminate up to 43,560 jobs, cut economic output by $3.4 billion over a five-year period and prevent 67,000 buildings from getting access to fiber, according to a report by Hal Singer, principal of Economists Inc. and adjunct professor with Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. USTelecom commissioned the study.
The study comes as some companies are asking the FCC to set prices in the market. Singer reportedly found no evidence of lack of competition, and says that monthly prices for some business broadband services declined between 7 and 17 percent from 2013 to 2015.
Singer used Charlotte, N.C., as a test bed because it reportedly has a population and supply of office buildings considered representative of an average U.S. city. He extrapolated the results to assess the impact of regulatory change nationwide. Projecting over a five-year period, the study predicts the following:
• If there is no regulation of fiber-based networks, providers would be able to light up nearly 122,000 buildings nationwide, representing $9.9 billion in capital expenditures and 4,900 new fiber route miles.
• New regulations would cut projected investment in half to an estimated $4.4 billion, providing fiber to only 55,100 buildings with 2,200 new fiber route miles.
• New regulations would eliminate 43,560 jobs and reduce economic output by $3.4 billion, while preventing 67,300 buildings from getting new fiber investment.
• Investment by multiple providers is ongoing and robust. Nearly 30 competitive broadband providers service over 267,000 buildings with fiber across the country, laying over 650,000 route miles of fiber, or 2.42 route miles per building.
• From 2010 to 2015, four major fiber service providers – Zayo, Level 3, Lightower and TW Telecom – invested about $6 billion in infrastructure in over 40,000 buildings, creating about 60,000 miles of metro fiber.
• The aggregate capital expenditure needed to wire all unlit buildings in the United States would be between $52 to $75 billion, based on costs per building in Charlotte.
