Study concludes net neutrality and other regulations on network providers would have an adverse impact on the economy and employment
WASHINGTON – Today on Capitol Hill, the American Consumer Institute Center for Citizen Research released the findings of a study examining the impact of policies, including ‘network neutrality,’ on job creation and national broadband deployment. The study concluded that Internet regulations would have an adverse impact on the economy and employment. The major conclusions of ACI’s study, “The Internet Ecosystem: Employment Impacts of National Broadband Policy” are below:
· Dollar for dollar, network companies (like AT&T, Time Warner and Verizon) create roughly twice the jobs that non-network companies (like Google & eBay) create.
o For every $1 billion in revenue, network companies provided 2,329 jobs, while non-network companies provided 1,199 jobs.
o These network jobs are high-paying jobs, paying at twice the rate of other nonfarm jobs, and they are more likely to be green jobs.
· Network companies invest a much higher percentage of cash flow back into the economy.
· Non-network companies are much more profitable because they don’t employ as many people, nor invest as much back into the economy.
“As President Obama said in his State of the Union address, putting Americans back to work is a top national priority. But proposed net neutrality regulations now under consideration at the FCC would undermine this critical goal,” ACI President Steve Pociask said. “Regulations that needlessly restrict the business opportunities of the companies that lead in job creation will discourage investment, slow the expansion of critical Internet infrastructure, and undermine efforts to put Americans back to work,” he added.
The study was authored by Larry F. Darby, Joseph P. Fuhr, Jr. and Stephen B. Pociask and is available at www.theamericanconsumer.org. For a copy of the study, aci-jobs-study-final2
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