Broadband Regulation

Research

Innovations in Mobile Broadband Pricing Daniel Lyons \| Mar 18, 2014 Although intended to promote competition and innovation among Internet content providers,“net neutrality” rules reduce innovation by broadband service providers. Within limits, broadband providers may offer different plans that vary the quantity and quality of their service. But they usually cannot vary the service itself: broadband providers are generally required to offer customers access to all lawful Internet traffic, or none at all. This all-or-nothing broadband homogenization places America increasingly at odds with international markets, particularly with regard to mobile broadband. This paper examines the diverse array of wireless broadband products available worldwide, and uses these international innovations to illuminate the difficulties posed by net neutrality principles in the United States. Broadband access is merely one part of a much broader Internet ecosystem. Regulators’ focus on one narrow set of relationships in that ecosystem retards innovation and limits the ability of Americans to share in the global revolution currently taking place for mobile services.	Reclaiming Federal Spectrum: Proposals and Recommendations Brent Skorup \| May 28, 2013 This paper discusses the history of spectrum management and the commercial and federal uses of the radio frequencies. Several policy proposals for reclaiming federal spectrum are presented, along with recommendations for rationalizing spectrum management.
Do High International Telecom Rates Buy Telecom Sector Growth? Eli Dourado \| Nov 30, 2012 The possible extension of the telephone system’s “sender-pays” rule to the Internet is a contentious international political issue under consideration at the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT). This paper examines whether higher international telephone rates support or impede telecom sector growth in the receiving country. It uses data on international telephone rates from the US from 1992-2010 to explain growth in foreign telecom sectors during the same period.	The Impact of Data Caps and Other Forms of Usage-Based Pricing for Broadband Access Daniel Lyons \| Oct 09, 2012 This working paper evaluates the merits of data caps and other usage-based pricing strategies. Usage- based pricing shifts more network costs onto heavier Internet users. This can reduce costs for others and make broadband more accessible to low-income consumers. Usage-based pricing can also reduce network congestion. While data caps can be used to hurt competition, antitrust law teaches that regulators should intervene only if consumers suffer harm and cannot switch Internet providers. Otherwise, broadband providers should be free to experiment with different pricing strategies to compete for customers and fund future network upgrades.
Consumer Welfare and TV Program Regulation Bruce M. Owen \| May 24, 2012 Getting rid of obsolete regulation of the broadcast and distribution of video pro- gramming is essential to the efficient operation of a market that has the potential to greatly increase the benefits to consumers.	The Federal Communication Commission's Excellent Mobile Competition Adventure Thomas Hazlett \| Nov 21, 2011 Welcome to the Federal Communications Commission‘s 15th Annual Report and Analysis of Competitive Market Conditions With Respect to Mobile Wireless, released June 27, 2011. The FCC Report makes mistakes with the Commission‘s own data. It contains typos. It omits crucial, relevant, and available facts. It wastes page after page discussing tangential issues. This paper discusses the economic implications of the FCC's actions.

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Testimony & Comments

Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund Jerry Brito, Jerry Ellig \| Apr 15, 2011 Jerry Brito and Jerry Ellig submitted a Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund.	Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund Jerry Ellig \| Jul 09, 2010 Creation of the Connect America Fund offers the FCC the opportunity to make a clean break with past subsidy disbursement practices that were often ineffective, inefficient, and unaccountable for…
The FCC's National Broadband Plan Christina Forsberg, Jerry Ellig \| Jun 09, 2009 In this Public Interest Comment, Senior Research Fellow Jerry Ellig and Mercatus Graduate Fellow Christina Forsberg make recommendations to the Federal Communications Commission for the national…	Implementing a Broadband Interoperable Public Safety Network in the 700 MHz Band Jerry Brito \| Jun 23, 2008 Last year, the FCC attempted to create a national public safety broadband network. It assigned to a nonprofit licensee 12 MHz of public safety spectrum in the 700 MHz band, and held an auction for…

Expert Commentary

In Defense of Broadband Fast Lanes Recode By Brent Skorup \| May 13, 2014 Unfortunately, the orchestrated reaction in recent weeks might spark rash political decision-making, and leave us with onerous rules, delaying or making impossible new broadband services. Hopefully, in the ensuing months, reason wins out, and FCC staff are persuaded by competitive analysis and possible innovations, not T-shirt slogans.	How Market Forces Are Expanding Broadband Access in the U.S. Reason By Jerry Brito \| Jul 03, 2013 Over the years we have been told that when it comes to broadband, Europe leads America. That the U.S. model tends too much toward monopoly, while Europe’s ensures strong competition among many small players. Well, queue the schadenfreude.
How Government Regulations Distort the Television Airwaves Reason By Jerry Brito \| Apr 26, 2013 Of all the distortionary federal regulations in existence, few are more patently inefficient and convoluted than those governing the television airwaves. Aereo, a new startup backed by media mogul Barry Diller, is looking to blow it all up.	Free WiFi For the Masses? Not So Fast Washington Examiner By Jerry Brito \| Feb 08, 2013 A free, nationwide, ad-supported wireless network provided by Google or anyone else would certainly be a great thing, but it shouldn't rely on shortcuts. Not only should new entrants have to build out their own network infrastructure, but they should have to buy their spectrum at auction, too.
Aaron Swartz: The Punishment Did Not Fit the Crime Reason By Jerry Brito \| Jan 31, 2013 Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old computer prodigy and Internet activist, was facing decades in prison for violating federal hacking laws when he took his own life earlier this month. Many commentators, including Lawrence Lessig and Glenn Greenwald, have argued that prosecutorial zeal drove Swartz to hang himself. They’re certainly right. Yet prosecutorial discretion would not have mattered much if the possibility of such draconian punishment did not exist.	Behind Closed Doors at the UN’s Attempted “Takeover of the Internet” Ars Technica By Eli Dourado \| Dec 20, 2012 Can the ITU and its member states truly embrace transparent processes? Perhaps—but there’s a long way to go. And the future direction of the Internet could be at stake.

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Experts

Jerry Brito

Jerry Brito is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and director of its Technology Policy Program. He also serves as an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University. His research focuses on technology and Internet policy, copyright, and the regulatory process.

Eli Dourado

Eli Dourado is a research fellow in the Technology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Adam Thierer

Adam Thierer is a senior research fellow with the Technology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He specializes in technology, media, Internet, and free-speech policies, with a particular focus on online safety and digital privacy. His writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and Forbes, and he has appeared on national television and radio. Thierer is a frequent guest lecturer and has testified numerous times on Capitol Hill.

Videos

Jerry Brito Discusses Net Neutrality

Jerry Brito | March 13, 2013

Network Economics and 'Net Neutrality' Regulation

Adam Thierer | March 13, 2013

Podcasts

Eli Dourado on WCITLeaks and internet governance

Jerry Brito | February 05, 2013

Jerry Brito and WCITLeaks co-creator Eli Dourado have a conversation about the recent World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), a UN treaty conference that delved into questions of Internet governance.

Download the MP3

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Recent Events

A New Framework for Broadband and the FCC

Please join us for a discussion with Raymond Gifford, Jeffrey Eisenach, and Howard Shelanski that will examine if a new framework might be needed for broadband policy and the possibility of reforming the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

More Recent Events

Books

The Case for Internet Optimism, Part 2

Adam Thierer | Jan 31, 2011

A response to fans of the Internet who fear that dark days lie ahead unless steps are taken to "save the Net" from a variety of ills, especially the perceived end of "openness."

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More Media Clippings

Innovations in Mobile Broadband Pricing Daniel Lyons \| Mar 18, 2014 Although intended to promote competition and innovation among Internet content providers,“net neutrality” rules reduce innovation by broadband service providers. Within limits, broadband providers may offer different plans that vary the quantity and quality of their service. But they usually cannot vary the service itself: broadband providers are generally required to offer customers access to all lawful Internet traffic, or none at all. This all-or-nothing broadband homogenization places America increasingly at odds with international markets, particularly with regard to mobile broadband. This paper examines the diverse array of wireless broadband products available worldwide, and uses these international innovations to illuminate the difficulties posed by net neutrality principles in the United States. Broadband access is merely one part of a much broader Internet ecosystem. Regulators’ focus on one narrow set of relationships in that ecosystem retards innovation and limits the ability of Americans to share in the global revolution currently taking place for mobile services.	Reclaiming Federal Spectrum: Proposals and Recommendations Brent Skorup \| May 28, 2013 This paper discusses the history of spectrum management and the commercial and federal uses of the radio frequencies. Several policy proposals for reclaiming federal spectrum are presented, along with recommendations for rationalizing spectrum management.
Do High International Telecom Rates Buy Telecom Sector Growth? Eli Dourado \| Nov 30, 2012 The possible extension of the telephone system’s “sender-pays” rule to the Internet is a contentious international political issue under consideration at the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT). This paper examines whether higher international telephone rates support or impede telecom sector growth in the receiving country. It uses data on international telephone rates from the US from 1992-2010 to explain growth in foreign telecom sectors during the same period.	The Impact of Data Caps and Other Forms of Usage-Based Pricing for Broadband Access Daniel Lyons \| Oct 09, 2012 This working paper evaluates the merits of data caps and other usage-based pricing strategies. Usage- based pricing shifts more network costs onto heavier Internet users. This can reduce costs for others and make broadband more accessible to low-income consumers. Usage-based pricing can also reduce network congestion. While data caps can be used to hurt competition, antitrust law teaches that regulators should intervene only if consumers suffer harm and cannot switch Internet providers. Otherwise, broadband providers should be free to experiment with different pricing strategies to compete for customers and fund future network upgrades.
Consumer Welfare and TV Program Regulation Bruce M. Owen \| May 24, 2012 Getting rid of obsolete regulation of the broadcast and distribution of video pro- gramming is essential to the efficient operation of a market that has the potential to greatly increase the benefits to consumers.	The Federal Communication Commission's Excellent Mobile Competition Adventure Thomas Hazlett \| Nov 21, 2011 Welcome to the Federal Communications Commission‘s 15th Annual Report and Analysis of Competitive Market Conditions With Respect to Mobile Wireless, released June 27, 2011. The FCC Report makes mistakes with the Commission‘s own data. It contains typos. It omits crucial, relevant, and available facts. It wastes page after page discussing tangential issues. This paper discusses the economic implications of the FCC's actions.

Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund Jerry Brito, Jerry Ellig \| Apr 15, 2011 Jerry Brito and Jerry Ellig submitted a Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund.	Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund Jerry Ellig \| Jul 09, 2010 Creation of the Connect America Fund offers the FCC the opportunity to make a clean break with past subsidy disbursement practices that were often ineffective, inefficient, and unaccountable for…
The FCC's National Broadband Plan Christina Forsberg, Jerry Ellig \| Jun 09, 2009 In this Public Interest Comment, Senior Research Fellow Jerry Ellig and Mercatus Graduate Fellow Christina Forsberg make recommendations to the Federal Communications Commission for the national…	Implementing a Broadband Interoperable Public Safety Network in the 700 MHz Band Jerry Brito \| Jun 23, 2008 Last year, the FCC attempted to create a national public safety broadband network. It assigned to a nonprofit licensee 12 MHz of public safety spectrum in the 700 MHz band, and held an auction for…

In Defense of Broadband Fast Lanes Recode By Brent Skorup \| May 13, 2014 Unfortunately, the orchestrated reaction in recent weeks might spark rash political decision-making, and leave us with onerous rules, delaying or making impossible new broadband services. Hopefully, in the ensuing months, reason wins out, and FCC staff are persuaded by competitive analysis and possible innovations, not T-shirt slogans.	How Market Forces Are Expanding Broadband Access in the U.S. Reason By Jerry Brito \| Jul 03, 2013 Over the years we have been told that when it comes to broadband, Europe leads America. That the U.S. model tends too much toward monopoly, while Europe’s ensures strong competition among many small players. Well, queue the schadenfreude.
How Government Regulations Distort the Television Airwaves Reason By Jerry Brito \| Apr 26, 2013 Of all the distortionary federal regulations in existence, few are more patently inefficient and convoluted than those governing the television airwaves. Aereo, a new startup backed by media mogul Barry Diller, is looking to blow it all up.	Free WiFi For the Masses? Not So Fast Washington Examiner By Jerry Brito \| Feb 08, 2013 A free, nationwide, ad-supported wireless network provided by Google or anyone else would certainly be a great thing, but it shouldn't rely on shortcuts. Not only should new entrants have to build out their own network infrastructure, but they should have to buy their spectrum at auction, too.
Aaron Swartz: The Punishment Did Not Fit the Crime Reason By Jerry Brito \| Jan 31, 2013 Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old computer prodigy and Internet activist, was facing decades in prison for violating federal hacking laws when he took his own life earlier this month. Many commentators, including Lawrence Lessig and Glenn Greenwald, have argued that prosecutorial zeal drove Swartz to hang himself. They’re certainly right. Yet prosecutorial discretion would not have mattered much if the possibility of such draconian punishment did not exist.	Behind Closed Doors at the UN’s Attempted “Takeover of the Internet” Ars Technica By Eli Dourado \| Dec 20, 2012 Can the ITU and its member states truly embrace transparent processes? Perhaps—but there’s a long way to go. And the future direction of the Internet could be at stake.