Countless industries and organizations, and hundreds of millions of customers across the country depend on this critical broadband input, including providers of other broadband services. Enabling end-users and broadband providers to obtain special access at a reasonable price is not only critical to broadband deployment, but also to spurring the investment and innovation that the U.S. economy needs.

Nearly every American uses high-capacity broadband lines each day. These lines connect our cell phones, workplaces, banks, factories, data centers, universities, and hospitals to enable communications among customers, employees, suppliers, government, and each one of us.

Over the past decade, competition has been decimated as regulators systematically eliminated protections for consumers and competitors, allowing a few giant phone companies like AT&T and Verizon to choke-off and control these critical broadband lines to their benefit and everyone else’s harm. In nearly every geographic market in the country, one of these huge companies is the sole provider of this necessary broadband service to nearly every business in that market.

This unchallenged control of high-capacity broadband lines has real costs for the economy. According to their own data provided to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), their control over these lines costs companies and consumers more than $10 billion annually in over-earnings and generates a profit margin of over 100%. This secret broadband tax results in enormous deadweight losses for consumers and the economy at a time when this country can least afford it. As Americans struggle to rebuild the country’s economy, we cannot afford to subsidize the bottom lines of a few huge companies at the expense of the rest of the information economy. This is money that businesses could be spending to keep their doors open, save jobs, and fuel our economic recovery – not for corporate welfare.

Overpriced high-capacity broadband and other market abuses by these companies has long been an issue of concern at the FCC. After many complaints by broadband customers in several FCC proceedings, the Commission began a proceeding nearly five years ago to review the high-capacity broadband market to determine what changes are necessary to ensure reasonable prices. Despite ample evidence of wildly excessive pricing, the Commission inexplicably has yet to take any action.

The time for the FCC to act is now. Enough is enough.