National Broadband Plan Workshop (Economic Issues in Broadband Competition)

National Broadband Plan Workshop (Economic Issues in Broadband Competition)

Room TW-C305 (Commission Meeting Room)
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554

October 9, 2009
10:00 am

Contact:
Jonathan Levy
Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis
Jonathan.Levy@fcc.gov
(202) 418-2048
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-293846A1.doc

Moderating Panel:
Jonathan Baker, Chief Economist, FCC
Scott Wallsten, Economics Director, Adoption Group, Omnibus Broadband Initiative

Agenda

10:00 am -- Workshop Introduction, Jonathan Baker

10:05 am -- Panel Presentations:

• Judith A. Chevalier, William S. Beinecke Professor of Finance and Economics, Yale School of Management
• Joseph Farrell, Director, Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission
• Shane Greenstein, Elinor and Wendell Hobbs Professor of Management and Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
• Marius Schwartz, Professor of Economics, Georgetown University
• Carl Shapiro, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice Department

11:20 pm -- Panelist Discussion and Responses to Questions

11:55 p.m. -- Closing Statements, Moderator

Noon -- Adjournment

Consumer and firm demand for broadband and provider supply of broadband services are both influenced by the extent of competition among broadband providers. Competition can deliver low prices and high quality services to buyers, and influence the scope and timing of provider investments and innovation.

This workshop will explore the extent to which broadband providers currently exercise market power today, the prospects for new competition, strategies the FCC and other governmental actors can employ to foster competition and entry, and regulatory strategies that might help prevent harms to social welfare in markets not likely to become competitive soon.

• Do broadband providers currently exercise market power? How does the answer vary by type of customer and geographic region?
• What are the prospects for new broadband competition from wireless and electricity providers? Are any other types of entry on the horizon?
• What strategies should the FCC and other governmental actors employ to foster broadband competition and entry?
• What regulatory strategies would protect competition and consumers in broadband markets not performing competitively? What conduct by broadband monopolists or duopolists would be particularly troublesome? Can that conduct be prohibited at low cost in production efficiency, and without discouraging investment and innovation or distorting competition in unregulated markets?