Democrats who want to resurrect Title II (a.k.a. net neutrality) rules on internet providers continue to ignore the lessons provided by Europe, where a stronger regulatory regime harmed broadband access during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Any arguments about lower broadband prices in Europe proves to be a bad comparison, since domestic internet providers face higher labor and capital investment costs.

Now that there is a 3–2 Democratic majority on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Chair Jessica Rosenworcel has announced an order that would bring back stricter regulations on internet providers. Carriers are now governed by Title I of the Communications Act of 1934, and the internet is defined as an information service. A move back to Title II (classifying as telecommunications services) could mean that the FCC could dictate pricing and give the commission more control over how networks are generally operated.

Famously, that heavy-handed regulation hasn’t worked out very well in Europe. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when employees and students across the globe were forced to work and study from home, European regulators asked bandwidth hogs like YouTube and Netflix to slow down the speed of their streams to prevent networks from crashing. No such requests were needed in the U.S. due to a more robust internet infrastructure here.

“The U.S. had no need to ration service — our network speeds exceeded theirs by 83% because our regulatory approach encouraged investment and buildout,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said Oct. 11 in issuing a press release pushing back against the Title II proposal.

U.S. Telecom/the Broadband Association found in a 2021 study that 92 percent of American households could access download speeds of 100 megabits per second (what federal grant programs now require for an area to be considered as served), compared to just 67 percent of residents in Europe.

The better networks and speeds can be directly attributed to higher network investment by American providers over their European counterparts. U.S. Telecom said that the $700-per-home average investment in the U.S. is three times greater than that in Europe.

“To those who think more regulations and more government thumb on the scale intervention is the right approach, I say just look to Europe, which chronically lags the United States in broadband deployment, adoption, investment and competition,” said Jonathan Spalter, U.S. Telecom president and CEO.

A subsequent study in 2022 by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) bolsters those points. ITIF notes in the introduction of its report that the longstanding narrative is that European broadband prices are lower than the American equivalents, which “buttresses claims of European superiority and calls for similar unbundling requirements and regulated competition in the U.S. telecom industry.”

But ITIF points out that it’s an apples-and-oranges comparison. For one, domestic broadband providers bear 53 percent higher costs than European providers for labor, infrastructure investment, spectrum licenses, and more.

ITIF reports that if U.S. broadband companies paid their workers the same as workers make in Europe, then they could cut their annual expenditures by $4.8 billion. The same progressives pushing for Title II and rate regulation surely wouldn’t argue for American broadband workers (who make 13 percent more than their European counterparts) to take a pay cut to even out those costs.

The study by ITIF also found that network costs tend to be much higher in the U.S. That’s because Europe is more urban, and it costs more to build broadband infrastructure in suburban and rural areas in the U.S. In addition, European providers are more likely to cherry-pick their customers, with American carriers serving a higher share of the local population.

“European telecom companies are taxed at a lower rate than U.S. providers and receive more government subsidies,” ITIF also pointed out. “In every regard, U.S. providers must pour proportionately higher amounts into essential expenditures.”

Despite these uphill battles, U.S. providers have built a stronger broadband infrastructure than what is found in Europe. Rather than attempt to put more rules on domestic companies, American regulators should more closely examine the benefits that the light-touch philosophy has borne in the U.S.

Johnny Kampis is director of telecom policy for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.