fair cost recovery

Business Models for Broadband Cost Recovery

Today’s internet business models don’t support the underlying cost of broadband infrastructure. When the internet started, there was no video. Traffic between internet service providers was symmetric, and the killer app was email. The Internet could not be more different today; traffic is asymmetric, disproportional, and overwhelmingly video. The internet ecosystem lacks more than $2 trillion for connectivity. New business models are needed to recover broadband infrastructure costs and ensure continued investment and innovation in networks.

For more than 25 years, Strand Consult has researched and published reports and analyses on the economics of broadband and telecommunications networks, chronicling the rise and evolution of network technologies, their business models, and regulation. Strand Consult studies these challenges around the world and assembles this information to for its audience.

Strand Consult launched its Global Project for Business Models for Broadband Cost Recovery to inform the policy development with evidence-based assessments, policy research, and transparency efforts. This information helps operators and policymakers understand the problem at local and global levels and evaluate the pros and cons of different solutions.

Effective broadband policy ensures that all people can access the internet and that networks evolve to serve a wide range of services. The Covid pandemic increased the urgency for universal broadband to enable remote work, education, healthcare, and other essential service. More largely, the internet increasingly drives the economy and productivity and the delivery of government services. However, without modernized policy and business models, gaps in broadband investment, rollout and affordability will persist.

Strand Consult’s Global Project for Business Models for Broadband Cost Recovery provides a library of valuable reports and research notes as well as education and training for policymakers about this critical challenge and opportunity. Contact Strand Consult to learn more.