Big Tech Pays for Power—Why Not Broadband?
Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed the “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” at the White House (see video of ceremony) which acknowledges a simple principle: the largest users of…
USF Reform USA
Big Tech’s Electricity Bill Is a Problem. Why the “Pay Your Way” Principle Should Apply to Broadband and Data Centers
The recent White House statement that hyperscale data centers should “pay their own way” for electricity captures a broader, overdue principle: when large, U.S.-based digital platform and cloud companies drive…
When Amazon Goes Down, We Pay the Price: How AWS Avoids the Obligations of Critical Infrastructure
The Amazon Web Services outage might seem a small price to pay for the high quality and value AWS provides. After all, the disruption was unintentional—a simple backend mistake—and AWS…
Broadband financing: US Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of Universal Service Fund; fees are not a tax
Modern democracies engage in policy to promote broadband including legislation for universal service, the principle that everyone has access to essential services, no matter where they live or how much…
Fact Check: How Cloud Evades the USF to Profit Without Paying In
Strand Consult leads the Global Project on Broadband Cost Recovery and Business Models. Strand Consult collects, organizes and synthesizes knowledge on the policy globally so that policymakers, the press, and…
Ending Big Tech’s Free Ride on USF: Reforming the Universal Service Fund to Serve Consumers and America
The largest internet companies Alphabet, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, and TikTock (“Big Tech”) derived an estimated $200 billion in revenue in 2024 from the 135 million users connecting to…
US Congress releases bipartisan bill to make Big Tech shoulder some consumer broadband costs, first major USF reform in a generation. Fair Share Update. Strand Consult.
On November 16, 2023, three U.S. Senators released the bipartisan, Lowering Broadband Costs for Consumers Act of 2023 (S. 3321). The bill is sponsored by Senators Mullin (R-OK), Kelly (D-AZ),…
Broadband Cost Recovery: A Study of Business Models for 50 Broadband Providers In 24 US States
The cost to manage video streaming in broadband networks is growing 2-3 times faster than revenue, frustrating broader investment and affordability goals. Strand Consult’s new report Broadband Cost Recovery: A…
Fact Check on Analysys Mason’s Claims on Big Tech Investments and Arguments Against Broadband Cost Recovery
Analysys Mason is a respected international consultancy whose reports inform the policymaking process. It has produced a series of reports commissioned by US tech companies like Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon,…
Middle Mile Economics: How streaming video entertainment undermines the business model for broadband
The pandemic has heightened the importance of braodband with policymakers and increased the urgency of closing the digital divide, particularly in the US as FCC data shows that 22% of…
