Now that the White House, Congress, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are getting serious about rural broadband deployment — in contrast to the past eight years — it is time to develop strategies that actually make positive impacts. Policies for rural broadband have seemed random the past eight years: billions of stimulus dollars were thrown at unneeded and failed projects, the FCC expanded failing systems such as Lifeline, the Obama White House and the FCC moved to limit the profitability of rural broadband, and the FCC chose an arbitrary definition for broadband. These failed policies wasted billions of dollars and did little to help rural communities gain broadband connectivity. It is time to let markets lead the way.

Read “Rural broadband deployment: The market-oriented way” on AEI.