Toward a Better FCC

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission’s public meeting Feb 8 could begin the process to eliminate outdated and costly monopoly-era regulations that still govern our nation’s phone networks. Amen.

The 15th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is an appropriate date for the FCC to start pruning the regulatory underbrush so Internet innovators can focus resources and capital on investment and broadband deployment. Congress’s stated purpose in its 1996 Act was “to provide for a pro-competitive, de-regulatory national policy framework designed to accelerate rapidly private sector deployment of advanced telecommunications and information technologies and services to all Americans by opening up all telecommunications markets to competition.” While reduced government controls over areas like information services helped unleash investment and innovation, the regulatory rulebook for telecom entrepreneurs is more complex than ever. Outdated regulations persist — adding costs and complexity to the creativity and new business formation so essential to our economy ­ even as policymakers regularly propose still more rules.