For the FCC, competition by any other name

[Commentary] In the marketplace of ideas, common sense does not always prevail. Such is the case when it comes to communications policy in Washington (DC). What makes perfect sense to the common man often moves policymakers to promulgate confusion.

As we enter 2016, competition policy affecting the telecommunication, media and technology (TMT) sector is both inchoate and inconsistent. Among other things, regulators will be looking into competition in the market for business data, or so-called special access services; competition in the online video distribution (OVD) or over-the-top (OTT) market; competition in mobile and wireless services; and competition in broadband offerings as averred in the pending Charter-Time Warner Cable and Altice-Cablevision mergers. These proceedings are certainly de rigueur and apropos for the world's leading communications market. Given this reality, the enduring hope among business leaders in the TMT sector is that government regulators will be guided by common sense, pragmatism and a scintilla of hoi polloi wisdom, which advises "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[Hoffman is chairman of Business in the Public Interest and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. He served as a chief of staff and senior legal advisor at the FCC from 2013 to 2015.]