Hanging up the telephone network

[Commentary] The story of the transition from the telephone to the pervasive, broadband Internet as the primary means of electronic communication is one of conflict.

The principal means by which the Federal Communications Commission stands in the way of history is through its insistence that it has discovered a “Network Compact” consisting of “enduring values” embedded in the corpus of telecom law that magically pertain not just to the particular historical circumstances around the formation of America’s telephone network, but to all future networks as well.

Effectively, the FCC wants the terms of the Kingsbury Commitment of 1913 to constrain the growth of the Internet, lest something bad might happen. This posture necessarily prevents any number of good things from happening as well, or at least postpones them indefinitely.

The telephone network has been replaced by a multitude of options: the mobile network, wireline broadband networks, satellite services, and public Wi-Fi networks that are often free to use. While Americans have largely abandoned the telephone network, regulators who have invested careers in learning, interpreting, and applying telecommunications law are reluctant to let it go. Hidebound regulators and holdout citizens are the primary obstacles to the complete phase-out of the telephone network and the reallocation of its operational expense in more worthwhile alternatives.

While the Commission is clearly doing its best to serve the public interest as it sees it, it must do better. Preserving the technologies of the past has sentimental appeal, but it’s ultimately counter-productive to delay new technologies that are already broadly accepted and widely used. The expense of maintaining the old networks only retards the construction and use of new ones that are better in every dimension.

[Bennett is a visiting fellow at AEI, has a 30-year background in network engineering and standards]