McDowell Speaks Out Against Wireless Broadband Network Neutrality Proposal

Speaking at a Progress and Freedom Foundation event, Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell cautioned the FCC not to allow the understandable uncertainty about new technology to "lure us into unwarranted regulation, which may be difficult or impossible to reverse." Riffing off an article by economist Ronald Coase that argued for a free market, rather than a government-controlled market, for spectrum, Commissioner McDowell said "lawyers and economists should not be so overwhelmed by the emergence of new technologies as to change the existing legal and economic system without first making quite certain that this is required." Citing the open access conditions put on the 700 MHz spectrum auctions, McDowell warned that, depending on how the FCC's network neutrality proposal shakes out, "we might one day point to the open access mandates in the 700 MHz auctions as the first step towards network management regulation of the wireless sector."