Wallsten and Hahn Submit Nine Recommendations for National Broadband Plan
June 8, 2009 – The broadband market in the U.S. is working well overall, as evidenced by nearly ubiquitous coverage, rapid adoption, large investments, and increasing speeds, according to comments submitted to the FCC regarding a national broadband plan by TPI Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow Scott Wallsten and Oxford Visiting Senior Fellow Robert Hahn. However, the market is not working well for all people in all places, and Hahn and Wallsten offer two general and seven specific recommendations to address those issues.
The general recommendations remind policymakers that the government should avoid distorting the market where it is working, and that the government should define clear, measurable, goals that do not benefit particular firms, technologies, or regions.
Specific recommendations include: liberalizing spectrum, gathering and analyzing data on broadband demand, targeting resources to where they are most needed, defining broadband access to maximize social gain, designing mechanisms that will achieve the government’s broadband goals at the lowest social cost, vigorously enforcing antitrust rules, and designing policies to facilitate rigorous evaluation.
The Hahn-Wallsten comments to the FCC can be found here.
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