The Technology Policy Institute and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research have released the complete agenda for “The National Broadband Plan: Economics, Politics and Policy,” a full-day conference scheduled for June 9th at Stanford University. The conference will feature a keynote luncheon address by ICANN President and CEO, Rod Beckstrom, former Director of the National Cybersecurity Center and successful tech entrepreneur.
Broadband
High-speed data connections, or broadband, are critical to the economy. Our work on broadband covers a wide range of topics, including the digital divide, wireline and wireless provision, spectrum, net neutrality, competition, and more.
June 9th Event: The National Broadband Plan: Economics, Politics and Policy
The Technology Policy Institute and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research are co-hosting “The National Broadband Plan: Economics, Politics and Policy,” a full-day conference scheduled for June 9th at Stanford University. Presentations and panel discussions will focus on such topics as broadband competition and demand, the effect of broadband deployment on economic development, spectrum allocation, and how recent events concerning the FCC’s jurisdiction over broadband could impact implementation of the National Broadband Plan.
Regulating the Internet
So much for data-driven policy: The Third Way
2009 IGF Workshop on Net Neutrality
The workshop discussed the accuracy of a very term of Network Neutrality in opposition to a term of Open Internet. It further discussed economics and engineering aspects of networks and how network management regulation might affect those investments. It also discussed the end-user perspective, need for transparency and a freedom of choice. As a cross-cutting issue, the implications to the digital divide and development were examined. Needs for policy and regulatory approaches towards network management were questioned and discussed, including analysing several experiences on national levels.
Op-ed: Broadband Bombshell
Spectrum currently held by the Federal government could potentially be the largest source of additional spectrum for broadband, write TPI President Thomas Lenard, TPI Research Associate James Riso, and NYU Professor Lawrence White in Broadband Bombshell, an opinion piece published by Forbes.com. In the piece, the authors suggest agencies should be charged market-oriented rents for the spectrum to create incentives to consider the opportunity costs of the spectrum that they occupy.
Broadband Bombshell
The future of the Internet is mobile. Therefore it is not surprising that a main goal of the Federal Communications Commission’s long-awaited National Broadband Plan is to increase the availability of electromagnetic spectrum–“the oxygen of mobile broadband service,” as FCC Chairman Genachowski put it in a recent speech. What is surprising is that the FCC’s current recommendation focuses on broadcasters and gives short shrift to what is potentially the largest source of additional spectrum–which is now occupied by the federal government.
TPI/Georgetown Event – The FCC’s National Broadband Plan: The Early Reaction
The Technology Policy Institute and the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy are hosting a half-day event on March 23rd on the FCC’s newly announced National Broadband Plan. Experts from industry, academia and government will share their reaction to the Plan in two panel discussions focusing on the effects of the Plan on both investment and broadband penetration. The event will feature a keynote from Blair Levin, Executive Director of the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative.
Lenard Files Comments with the FCC In the Matter of Preserving the Open Internet Broadband Industry Practices
These comments supplement those that I submitted in response to the Commission‟s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Preserving the Open Internet during the initial comment period.2 The purpose of these reply comments is to address the recommendation of several public interest groups to reclassify broadband as a Title II service subject to traditional common carrier regulation.3 Press reports suggest that the Commission is seriously considering implementing this recommendation
Reclassifying Broadband as Title II Service Wrong Way to Go
TPI President Thomas Lenard urged the FCC not to reclassify broadband as a Title II service, as the agency reportedly is considering. Such a step, he wrote in comments submitted to the FCC, would “adversely affect innovation, investment, and consumer welfare, and would undermine the Commission’s goal of extending broadband penetration, particularly to underserved populations.” Lenard said his “earlier comments on the Open Internet NPRM apply even more strongly to the proposal to reclassify broadband as a Title II service.”
TPI EVENT TOMORROW: Increasing Spectrum for Broadband: FCC, Congressional Representatives Discuss Options
The expansion of wireless broadband is a bright spot in the U.S. economy, but a shortage of liberally licensed spectrum rights could put a crimp on this expansion. The freeing up of spectrum from other uses would allow greater expansion of wireless broadband and would bring substantial gains – likely in the hundreds of billions of dollars – for U.S. consumers, businesses, and the federal treasury. Developing a plan to increase the amount of spectrum for wireless broadband is a high priority of the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative, which is developing a national broadband plan. Failure to allocate sufficient spectrum will slow the rollout of broadband services, increase their prices, and cost consumers and taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. TPI has assembled a panel of experts to discuss the options.