Digital communications continues to grow, with internet traffic over wired and wireless broadband connections more than doubling between 2019 and 2024. In a new insight, Director of Technology and Innovation Policy Nick Krosse discusses challenges to further broadband deployment and the debate among policymakers over ways to limit permitting barriers to broadband deployment.

Key points:

• Broadband deployers are rushing to build advanced communications infrastructure necessary to meet Americans’ growing demand.
• Yet state and local permitting processes—intended to ensure that deployers won’t run afoul of zoning, environmental, or historical laws, or hinder the use of rights-of-way—can create barriers to broadband deployment through excessive delays and fees.
• Congress and the Federal Communications Commission are considering proposals to preempt some aspects of state and local permitting authority through deadlines for review and caps on application fees; policies should seek to do so in ways that address unnecessary barriers while preserving localities’ essential role in managing public rights-of-way.

Read the analysis.