Stanford CIS

Reaffirming First Principles of Open Communications Networks

By Mark Cooper on

Consumer group comments in the FCC's Broadband Practices Notice of Inquiry demonstrate the failure of the current reliance on a cozy, Telco-Cable duopoly to achieve the policy goal of a ubiquitous communications network "with adequate facilities at reasonable charge" in the broadband era.  Pointing out that the decision to allow communications networks to operatte without an obligation of nondiscrimination is a recent reverseal of long standing policy, they make the case for a return to the principle of open communications networks as the solution to the declining status of the U.S. in global broadband adoption.