Jerry Ellig is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He has also served as deputy director and acting director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission.
The FCC has the ability to solve the $24 billion “broadband funding gap” all by itself, without a dime of new money from taxpayers, broadband subscribers, or telephone subscribers.
In US history, imposing public utility regulation on an oligopoly has usually created either cartels or shortages. Why would public utility regulation of broadband be any different?
Recent contorversies over early termination fees for wireless devices show that policymakers still don’t understand the limits of what they can accomplish.