Meeting the Gretzky Test

The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, warned us against this status quo bias. The secret to his legendary success on the ice was to “skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” The Gretzky Test is popular in sports and in business now, and I think competition authorities—and especially those of us in tech and telecom regulation—should hold ourselves to it, too. The Federal Communications Commission has not always met that test. For too long, too many at the FCC sought to preserve the status quo, thinking that doing so could only benefit the Americans we serve. The FCC was wrong. There may be no more important iteration of the Gretzky Test for telecom regulators today than understanding the impact of 5G. Our competition policy—how we define relevant markets, in particular—needs fresh thinking. We need to regulate based on where these dynamic markets are going. And that is the best way to preserve freedom and the benefits that free markets bring to Americans.