Showing archive for: “Digital Divide”
Introductory Post: Retrospective on Ajit Pai’s Tenure as FCC Chairman
Ajit Pai will step down from his position as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) effective Jan. 20. Beginning Jan. 15, Truth on the Market will host a symposium exploring Pai’s tenure, with contributions from a range of scholars and practitioners. As we ponder the changes to FCC policy that may arise with the ... Introductory Post: Retrospective on Ajit Pai’s Tenure as FCC Chairman
Islands of Chaos: The Economic Calculation Problem Inherent in Municipal Broadband
Municipal broadband has been heavily promoted by its advocates as a potential source of competition against Internet service providers (“ISPs”) with market power. Jonathan Sallet argued in Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s, for instance, that municipal broadband has a huge role to play in boosting broadband competition, with attendant lower prices, ... Islands of Chaos: The Economic Calculation Problem Inherent in Municipal Broadband
Doublespeak in the Debate About Rural Broadband Buildout
As Thomas Sowell has noted many times, political debates often involve the use of words which if taken literally mean something very different than the connotations which are conveyed. Examples abound in the debate about broadband buildout. There is a general consensus on the need to subsidize aspects of broadband buildout to rural areas in ... Doublespeak in the Debate About Rural Broadband Buildout
In Defense of Usage-Based Billing
In the face of an unprecedented surge of demand for bandwidth as Americans responded to COVID-19, the nation’s Internet infrastructure delivered for urban and rural users alike. In fact, since the crisis began in March, there has been no appreciable degradation in either the quality or availability of service. That success story is as much ... In Defense of Usage-Based Billing
Call for Papers and Proposals – Nebraska Rural Digital Divide Roundtable
On March 19-20, 2020, the University of Nebraska College of Law will be hosting its third annual roundtable on closing the digital divide. UNL is expanding its program this year to include a one-day roundtable that focuses on the work of academics and researchers who are conducting empirical studies of the rural digital divide. Academics ... Call for Papers and Proposals – Nebraska Rural Digital Divide Roundtable
T-Mobile Sprints to the Finish Line: States Demand a Do-Over
The Department of Justice announced it has approved the $26 billion T-Mobile/Sprint merger. Once completed, the deal will create a mobile carrier with around 136 million customers in the U.S., putting it just behind Verizon (158 million) and AT&T (156 million). While all the relevant federal government agencies have now approved the merger, it still ... T-Mobile Sprints to the Finish Line: States Demand a Do-Over
The Mozilla oral arguments and the ongoing hell of the “net neutrality” debate
In the opening seconds of what was surely one of the worst oral arguments in a high-profile case that I have ever heard, Pantelis Michalopoulos, arguing for petitioners against the FCC’s 2018 Restoring Internet Freedom Order (RIFO) expertly captured both why the side he was representing should lose and the overall absurdity of the entire ... The Mozilla oral arguments and the ongoing hell of the “net neutrality” debate
Closing the Rural Digital Divide Requires Understanding the Rural Digital Divide
I had the pleasure last month of hosting the first of a new annual roundtable discussion series on closing the rural digital divide through the University of Nebraska’s Space, Cyber, and Telecom Law Program. The purpose of the roundtable was to convene a diverse group of stakeholders — from farmers to federal regulators; from small ... Closing the Rural Digital Divide Requires Understanding the Rural Digital Divide
Of Cake and Netflix
My new FSF Perspectives piece, Let Them Eat Cake and Watch Netflix, was published today. This piece explores a tension in Susan Crawford’s recent Wired commentary on Pew’s 2013 Broadband Report. I excerpt from the piece below. You can (and, I daresay, should!) read the whole thing here. In her piece, after noting the persistence ... Of Cake and Netflix
