Study Backs High-Speed Internet Competition

Public Knowledge, along with five competitive telecom carriers, released an important economic analysis showing that decreased regulation of local telephone companies has resulted in less investment by those companies - not more as the companies claimed would happen. The study finds that that investment rose in the five years immediately following the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, as did employment in the telecom sector. However, the study found that in the years since 2001 when many of the competitive policies put in place were negated, principally the rules that required telephone companies to allow competitors to use their networks. The paper recommended reinstating a "competition-friendly regulatory regime" to give competitors access to "reasonably priced wholesale broadband facilities."