Industry group USTelecom has released a study showing broadband providers invested $94.7 billion into the U.S. communications infrastructure in 2023. The annual figure was more than 23% above the historic annual average, the group said.
Overall, the industry has invested about $2.2 trillion in broadband infrastructure since 1996, the study found. Only 2022, 2001 and 2000 saw higher investment levels than last year, the group reported in a chart posted below.
The 2023 investments reflect a range of activities, including expansion of fiber deployments, integration of fiber and mobile networks, increased rural broadband construction and network capacity additions to keep pace with advances in artificial intelligence and other applications fueling increased bandwidth demands among consumers and across the economy.
An intensely competitive marketplace and strong consumer demand also spurred 2023’s near-record investment, the study found.
The USTelecom report collected capital expenditure data for major wireline, wireless and cable broadband providers to approximate an industry aggregate. This figure does not include smaller wireline broadband providers, electric cooperatives or satellite broadband providers, due to the difficulty of obtaining consistent and comparable data, USTelecom said. The researchers estimated these competitors’ capex contributions at no less than $2 billion.
