Free State Foundation

Congress should extend the worthwhile Affordability Connectivity Program (ACP) promptly by appropriating additional funding. At the same time, it can consider revising the program to better target the ACP benefit to those lower-income households most truly in need and adopting measures to minimize, to the extent possible, any waste, fraud, and abuse in the program. The ACP represents one-half of the federal government's push to make it possible for every American to access a high-speed Internet connection.

Broadband policy has emerged as a way for Democrats running for President to appeal to primary voters. They emphasize their commitment to "Net Neutrality," often in its most extreme form (i.e., public utility regulation). They also promise expansive (and expensive) government-funded construction of broadband infrastructure. Neither, however, constitutes effective policy.

Jonathan Sallet, now a Senior Fellow of the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society and FCC General Counsel during Tom Wheeler's chairmanship of the Obama-era Federal Communications Commission, has published a new paper titled, "Broadband for America's Future: A Vision for the 2020s." Because I disagreed with much (but not all) of the Obama FCC's broadband policy – especially including its imposition of public utility-like regulation on Internet service providers – I am not surprised that I disagree with much

The D.C. Circuit issued its long-awaited decision in Mozilla v. Federal Communications Commission.  The court affirmed the Federal Communications Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom (RIF) Order, identifying some flaws in the agency’s reasoning but finding the agency could likely correct those errors on remand without vacatur. Though largely expected given the Supreme Court’s precedent in Brand X, the decision is nonetheless a sweeping victory for the FCC and judicial validation of Chairman Ajit Pai’s light-touch regulatory framework for the broadband industry.

In his address on April 26, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai cited Free State Foundation research estimating that the Open Internet Order "has already cost our country $5.1 billion in broadband capital investment."

Just two years after the FCC adopted the Open Internet Order, I estimate that broadband providers significantly slowed investment, despite the claims by the FCC that the opposite would occur. Taking into account the latest USTelecom investment data, I now estimate that foregone investment in 2015 and 2016 was about $5.6 billion, an amount providers likely would have invested in a business climate without Title II public utility regulation.

[Commentary] When Congress has an opportunity to eliminate outdated, unnecessary, and constitutionally problematic regulations, it should consider doing so. Congressional legislation reauthorizing the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) offers just such an opportunity.

Section 623 of the Communications Act contains basic tier regulations that are relics of a long bygone cable "bottleneck" era. STELA is considered "must-pass" legislation because it contains the framework for retransmission of broadcast TV content by direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers. Some suggest that Congress should keep the STELA bill "clean." Here "clean" means extending provisions scheduled to sunset at the end of 2014 while avoiding any reforms of legacy video regulation.

Congress shouldn't be rigidly wedded to any artificial principle in order to obstruct genuine regulatory reform. Rather, it's a sound principle that burdensome government regulations premised on market failure should be reduced or eliminated where competitive market conditions actually emerge. Also, Congress could insert into STELA reauthorization a provision to eliminate basic tier cable rate regulation.

But must-buy has, like the rate regulation system, outlived its reason for being. Cable operators should be free to offer consumers video content according to their own editorial judgment, not government dictates. Congress should keep an open mind about using STELA reauthorization legislation as a route to regulatory reform for video services. Through STELA, Congress could tidy up its policy toward cable services by eliminating rate and must-buy basic tier regulations.

[March 7]