Wireline Duopoly Losing its Bite As Comcast and Verizon Carve Up Broadband Terrain, Say Workshop Panelists

The Federal Communications Commission workshop on economic issues in broadband competition on October 9 brought together regulators and academics, who agreed that regulation of the broadband market would be difficult and different compared to old-style telecommunications. In answer to the question of whether "there a duopoly in the broadband market," almost everyone said "Yes." Judith Chevalier of Yale University, explained that while economic models do exist and can be useful they are not perfect. "There are big gaps between these models and the world we see." She said that there are too many variables for a truly perfect model to be created. Hence one must look at the market to predict the outcome of any regulation - and not just rely on a result from an econometric model. Echoing a refrain of almost every workshop, Chevalier said that in order to create a better model, "we need more and better data."