Not So Fast

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler plans to add as much as $1.5 billion to their phone bills. That’s OK, says the FCC, since it’s for a good cause: speed and education. The money would go toward increasing the funds in the E-rate subsidy and it’s undeniably a laudatory end-result -- getting faster broadband to low-income schools and libraries. But it illustrates the somewhat less preferable point that to get value, one must pay for it. How much value boosting the budget will create is a matter of dispute, but the point is the Chairman recognizes that offering more and better broadband is worth paying a little extra for. Let’s just put this on the schedule as a reminder when the “high cable bill” mantra surfaces. As Chairman Wheeler knows, having headed the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and CTIA: The Wireless Association, building out a network is not cheap, and recovering that investment takes years, particularly if you are rate-regulated.