Category Archives: Government

700Mhz and Competition

Positions on future uses of the 700Mhz spectrum formerly occupied by analog TV aren’t just for presidential candidates anymore. Congress is hearing arguments:

Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who chairs the subcommittee that handles telecommunications and Internet issues, urged the FCC to “seize this opportunity to create an open-access opportunity for wireless service in this auction.” He added that wireless carriers are “exerting far too much control over the features, functions and applications that wireless gadget makers and content entrepreneurs can offer directly to consumers.”
— FCC Auction Should Allow for Open Wireless Network, Say Lawmakers, By Kim Hart, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, July 12, 2007; Page D08

Some search, VoIP, and computer companies say auctioning off some of that spectrum with open access requirements would promote competition, while telcos claim it would hurt their investments, stifle competition, and reduce revenues to the government from the auction. I think it may well reduce direct government auction revenues, but the economic benefits of real competition should be worth it. You’d think the nominally free market supporting telcos would agree with that. Continue reading →

TV4U? Not Me!

Franchise reform, if you don’t have enough supporters, apparently you can just write their names in anyway:

At a Capitol press conference, several others leading the fight against the bill — including former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and communications professor Cynthia Laitman — said their names also falsely showed up as supporters of the deregulation bill on petitions given lawmakers by TV4Us, the private group leading the ad and public relations push for the bill.
“I don’t know how it happened,” said Soglin, who said he has pushed for tight municipal controls and consumer protections over the cable TV industry since 1971. “AT&T gets very confused.”
— Legislators seek probe of misuse of names, By Steven Walters, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WEDNESDAY, July 11, 2007, 11:15 a.m.

How confused? Continue reading →

Market Failure?

Here’s an interesting directive from the White House:

The order requires federal officials to show that private companies, people or institutions failed to address a problem before agencies can write regulations to tackle it. It also gives political appointees greater authority over how the regulations are written.
— House Balks at Bush Order for New Powers, By Jim Abrams, The Associated Press Tuesday, July 3, 2007; 8:16 PM

How does this work?

Continue reading →

Broadband Produces Employment

Many have assumed that broadband is good for the economy; now here’s a study with rivets:

More specifically, for every one percentage point increase in broadband penetration in a state, employment is projected to increase by 0.2 to 0.3 percent per year.
— The Effects of Broadband Deployment on Output and Employment: A Cross-sectional Analysis of U.S. Data, By Robert Crandall, William Lehr and Robert Litan, Brookings Institution, 2007

Of course, this is like saying every state in medieval Germany that had a printing press produced employment in the printing industry. There are economic and social effects far beyond mere employment. What should be done?

The paper has a few recommendations:

The surest route to lower prices is provided by increasing competition in the delivery of broadband services.

Continue reading →

The Tree of Liberty

On this day in the United States we celebrate the Declaration of Independence with

Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfire and Illuminations

as John Adams recommended in 1776.

The Declaration laid out a “a long train of abuses and usurpations” and referred to “certain unalienable Rights”, which the former colonials went on to spell out in a written Constitution (the oldest in the world today) to which they added a Bill of Rights. Is their work done? Continue reading →

FTC: What, Me Worry?

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says there’s no need for net neutrality:

FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras said that without evidence of “market failure or demonstrated consumer harm, policy makers should be particularly hesitant to enact new regulation in this area.”

So in a “market” where the average customer has at most two choices, we’re supposed to wait for a market failure? Continue reading →

FCC’s Record Screams

The Wall Street Journal doesn’t trust the FCC to clean up TV:

Haven’t we seen this TV sitcom before? It’s the one in which politicians try to clean up the airwaves in the name of protecting children.
—FCC TV, Wall Street Journal, May 2007

Even though parents are concerned about violence on TV, the WSJ notes that there isn’t exactly a groundswell of demand for political interference:

“The report cites studies showing that parents in the U.S. are deeply concerned about violence on TV. That may be true, but it’s difficult to square with another of the report’s findings, which is that nearly 70% of children have a TV in their bedroom. Either mom and dad aren’t as concerned about the issue as policy makers and special-interest groups would like, or they have things in better perspective.”
— FCC TV, Center for Creative Voices in Media Blog, 23 May 2007

Is this the only conservative voice against FCC censorship of whatever it chooses to call violence? Continue reading →

Ted Who?

The comic is the message.

-jsq

No Blocking, No Throttling

Big telcos have been blocking calls by conference call services that route through places such as Iowa that have low rural rates for backhaul. Now one of them, freeconferencecall.com, is declaring victory:

As most of you know, we have been engaged in a battle with several major telecom carriers over the last few months. While we continue to take every precaution to safeguard our customers, several have undoubtedly been affected by the carriers’ strong-arm battle tactics. Their decision to block incoming calls to our conferencing and voicemail numbers interrupted thousands of users including small businesses, non-profits, universities and entrepreneurs alike. We have taken this issue to the courts, the government and the press, but the pivotal difference has been the outcry and support from our customers. The Federal Communications Commission, the State Attorney Generals and the telecom giants heard your collective voice and agreed to stop all call blocking. We would like to thank you for getting involved and colleague. Together we can redefine the communications industry!
—Freeconferencecall newsletter, 27 May 2007

I don’t know about redefining the communications industry, but they do seem to have won this round. Even the FCC agrees. Continue reading →

Slow and Expensive U.S.

Speed is trivial, but you’d think we could do better than this:

The average broadband download speed in the US is only 1.9 megabits per second, compared to 61 Mbps in Japan, 45 Mbps in South Korea, 18 Mbps in Sweden, 17 Mpbs in France, and 7 Mbps in Canada, according to the Communication Workers of America.
— US high-speed Internet is slow, Submitted by Canada IFP, Press Esc, on Sun, 2007-05-20

And as we’ve seen, that list of countries could soon include Hong Kong and India, because they’re taking the problem seriously. More interesting was this was said to. Continue reading →

Peerflow

Open participation through a fast Internet