According the latest Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) report U.S. Investment Heroes of 2015 issued today, ISPs (really, the cable and telecom industry as a whole) are investing more capital into infrastructure improvements than any other industry in America. In 2014, ISPs were the leader as well with $46 billion. In 2015, the number leapt to $48.7 billion, an impressive jump of nearly six percent.
This is particularly significant as the United States continues to suffer through an investment drought. In fact, PPI cites capital per worker-hour has fallen since 2010. As the report says, “Given that productivity gains are the primary force for real wage growth, there’s a direct link from weak business investment to slow productivity growth to weak real wage gains.” In other words, capital investment directly affects increasing wages. Balking this falling capital-to-wage trend, ISPs invested more money than ever, driving new jobs and growing the economy.
But American Internet users got a lot more for their cash than abstract economic growth. According to the latest data from a variety of sources, Americans now have access to incredible Internet speeds, near-ubiquitous Internet access, and ever increasing broadband adoption rates.
In just the last few years, maximum broadband speeds have quadrupled – now up to 2 Gbps. And though the U.S. has only 4 percent of the world’s population, it’s home to an incredible 25 percent of its broadband investment dollars. This has lead to average peak connection speeds in the top ten fastest states to all be well over 50 Mbps. Plus According to NTIA, ISPs have connected 99 percent of Americans to broadband speeds that were at least 10Mbps.
Perhaps the best news that follows investment dollars is increased access to broadband, and thus improving adoption rates. More than two-thirds of Americans are now online, taking advantage of all the opportunities the Internet has to offer. The Internet has incredible transformative powers, and investing to get everyone connected should be applauded.