American Enterprise Institute

The time is long past for Congress to adopt outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s recommendation: Move the universal service program on-budget, which will shore up its precarious financial state and cure many of the real or perceived problems with the existing program. Some have suggested expanding the revenue base to include broadband access. An alternative proposal floated by state utilities commissioners would have replaced the existing surcharge with a per-number tax on residential lines and a revenue-based tax on commercial telephone revenue.

 A new empirical study of net neutrality regulations in 32 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries found that the regulations suppress broadband subscriptions and investment in fiber optics. What’s the bottom line? If the Joe Biden administration is serious about following science, it won’t try to resuscitate net neutrality. And hopefully Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s investment in economics at the FCC will lead a Biden FCC to be more evidence-based in its decision-making than the last Obama FCC.