President Obama: Don’t mess with “our” Internet!

[Commentary] We know from cold, hard experience that our utility-regulation regimes have not been supportive of innovation because we have not achieved the same levels of innovation that we observe in the United States. We know with certainty that our Internet experience is so much richer because we can imitate successful US innovations. Some of us may have cheaper connections than the US; some of us have faster connections; but none of that matters if we don’t have access to the innovative applications and commercial models developed in the US. That is where the real value of the Internet economy lies. So President Obama – please don’t mess with “our” Internet. We will all be poorer if US innovation falls to the levels that we in the utility-regulated world have to live with.

[Howell is general manager for the New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation]