The Cost of Holding Up Broadband
America’s multibillion-dollar broadband push rests on an unglamorous piece of infrastructure: the utility pole. Fiber may carry the future, but first someone has to pay for the wood holding it up. Broadband providers rarely own the poles their networks use. Reaching a new community usually requires attaching equipment to poles owned by a utility or ... The Cost of Holding Up Broadband
The Roswell Loophole: How to Stop Wireless Deployment One Permit at a Time
A city does not need to hang a “no cell towers allowed” sign to keep wireless service out. It can get there the quieter way: deny one permit, then another, each for reasons that sound local, particular, and perfectly ordinary. The question at the heart of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is whether federal law ... The Roswell Loophole: How to Stop Wireless Deployment One Permit at a Time
The Lifeline Program’s Afterlife Problem
A subsidy program can survive many things. Paying benefits to the dead should not be one of them. That is the problem now facing the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Lifeline program, which was designed to ensure that low-income Americans can connect to the communications networks modern life depends on. As the program has expanded to ... The Lifeline Program’s Afterlife Problem
The Last Mile Is a Paper Trail: Why Broadband Gets Stuck
Everyone wants faster broadband—no one wants to wait for the permits. Modern communications infrastructure doesn’t stand still. Providers must keep investing in upgrades and expansion to meet consumer demand. Next-generation applications—artificial intelligence (AI), artificial reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR)—will require robust infrastructure to support them. That infrastructure depends on sustained investment from a wide ... The Last Mile Is a Paper Trail: Why Broadband Gets Stuck
Subsidizing Obsolescence: How FCC Rules Keep Copper Alive
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is close to finishing a long-running transition away from legacy telecom regulation—but outdated rules still pay carriers to stay in the past. Last month, the FCC adopted a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to eliminate payments to legacy telecommunications carriers that have not upgraded to networks based on internet protocols ... Subsidizing Obsolescence: How FCC Rules Keep Copper Alive
The FCC’s Sleeping Power Over the Press
The Trump administration says it wants to end federal censorship. Its recent statements suggest something else. In the executive order “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,” the White House asserted: The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American ... The FCC’s Sleeping Power Over the Press
Gigabit or Bust: The Mirage of Insufficient Broadband Competition
Regulators keep searching for a simple test to declare broadband markets “competitive.” The California Public Utilities Commission’s Public Advocates Office (Cal Advocates) thinks it found one: count gigabit networks. If a market lacks multiple overlapping gigabit-capable systems, Cal Advocates suggests in a report released last month, regulators should treat it as effectively noncompetitive. That framing ... Gigabit or Bust: The Mirage of Insufficient Broadband Competition
The FCC Still Thinks You Have Rabbit Ears
Federal video regulation still treats broadcast, cable, and streaming as separate worlds. Consumers do not. The gap between how the law classifies video services and how people actually watch them is widening, and it increasingly distorts competition across the modern media marketplace. Last week, the International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE) hosted a panel ... The FCC Still Thinks You Have Rabbit Ears
Affiliates vs Networks: The FCC’s Attempt to Rewind a Broken Tape
The Trump administration has had a mixed approach to date on reforming the broadcasting rules. On one hand, broadcast-ownership reforms have been a key issue this year for Republican appointees at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as they seek to help struggling broadcasters keep pace with their digital rivals. On the other hand, the president ... Affiliates vs Networks: The FCC’s Attempt to Rewind a Broken Tape
Rules Down, Rockets Up: The Year Telecom Policy Hit Reset
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) have had a busy year on numerous fronts, but perhaps none more important than their work on broadband deployment and adoption. At the FCC, Chairman Brendan Carr made his “Build America” agenda a key agency priority, while the NTIA implemented a variety of ... Rules Down, Rockets Up: The Year Telecom Policy Hit Reset
The FCC’s Ambivalent Approach to Broadcast Regulation
A pair of proceedings currently before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) illustrate a puzzling incongruity. While the agency proposes in one docket to eliminate broadcasters’ ownership restrictions, in another, it explores imposing new regulations on their contractual relationships. This divergence highlights how the FCC’s flexible application of the “public interest” standard may serve the interests ... The FCC’s Ambivalent Approach to Broadcast Regulation
Nexstar-Tegna and the Problem of Double-Secret Merger Review: Why Antitrust Should Trump ‘Public Interest’
The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) recently sent a second request to Nexstar Media Group and Tegna Inc. seeking additional information about their proposed $6.2 billion merger. This request extends the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act waiting period by 30 days, pending the companies’ compliance. According to a securities filing, the two television-station ownership groups anticipate their planned merger ... Nexstar-Tegna and the Problem of Double-Secret Merger Review: Why Antitrust Should Trump ‘Public Interest’
