Mark Twain once called the reports of his death greatly exaggerated, which is how we feel about competition in the telecom sector. Despite the protestations of those who keep urging new government regulation to assure continued choices in cable TV and wireless, the market keeps telling us that competition is …
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The Federal Communication Commission, which oversees the gigantic U.S. market for telecommunications, recently released its sixteenth report on the state of competition in the wireless industry. It’s chock-full of data, grist for business strategists and policy nerds seeking to understand the dynamics of a fast-paced wireless industry and its uneasy … The dictum, “first, do no harm,” is a duty commonly assigned to physicians. In our view, it’s a good mantra for regulators as well, and we urge it on the Federal Communications Commission in drawing up rules for an upcoming auction to free additional radio spectrum for smart phones, tablets … Check this recent commentary re the anniversary of the 1996 Telecom Act, which turned 17 last month. We come away convinced more than ever of the difficulty of designing regulatory policies that can keep up with the startling pace of technological change. In telecom, the changes have come … Brookings, the D.C.-based think tank, just published The Need for Speed: A New Framework for Telecommunications Policy for the 21st Century, the last word to date on Internet regulation written by telecom experts Robert Litan and Hal Singer. If you’re interested in the subject, this is a must-read. For those … Ma Bell had a monopoly in long-distance calls when Charley’s Angels dominated prime time; Standard Oil came close in oil, long before any of us were born. Almost everybody applauded when they were broken up – and lots of folks groaned when Microsoft, another gigantic corporation that cast a very … Why do tech firms at the top of their game invest so much? The answer, from former Intel CEO, was prescient: only the paranoid survive. And sometimes, we might add, even if you are paranoid, you don’t necessarily survive. Competition in the information technology industry is almost as frenzied as the … Are you a policy wonk or Internet geek? (Or maybe a policy geek or Internet wonk?) We commend your attention to a perceptive report just issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, an update on the promise and perils of telecommunications regulation. It explains why telephone regulation is … Does the Internet need some form of regulation? Absolutely. Is the United Nations the best forum for regulating it? Absolutely not. We raise this second question because the World Conference on International Communications in Dubai is coming up in December. And it will be convened by the International Telecommunications … The competition police, it seems, have been very busy on both sides of the Atlantic. The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly wrapping up a 15-month investigation of Google, apparently zeroing in on the search giant’s alleged inclination to give short shrift to competitors’ page placement. Meanwhile, Brussels has been doing … By Robert Hahn, Peter Passell | Tags: Federal Trade Commission, Google, Microsoft | Category: Telecommunications Regulation |
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Professor Dieter Helm (Oxford) is a very fine fly fisherman, and an even better economist. If you haven’t done so, take a look at his new book “The Carbon Crunch: How We Are Getting Climate Change Wrong — and How to Fix It” for a bit of unconventional wisdom. He argues that politicians and the general public have not shown any real interest in addressing climate change. Helm argues that places like Europe should focus on setting a price for carbon that would cover consumption (and not just production), and that fracking could be a good “bridge” technology for reducing consumption of coal. The book is readable and insightful for those interested in the inside track on climate policy. 
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