{"id":163,"date":"2009-07-23T06:26:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-23T06:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=163"},"modified":"2017-01-24T16:03:30","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T21:03:30","slug":"the-pff-on-broadband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mhgoldberg.com\/blog\/?p=163","title":{"rendered":"The PFF on broadband"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Progress & Freedom Foundation<\/a> has released a submission by its president, Kenneth Ferree, to the FCC [pdf<\/a>, 345KB] that makes for an entertaining read. C’mon, how many regulatory submissions are able to squeeze in a citation for Nietzsche by the top of the second page?<\/p>\n

I found that many of the arguments are as applicable to Canada as the US market for which it was targetted. As the press release<\/a> states:<\/p>\n

Ferree takes issue with claims that a duopoly in landline broadband markets would necessarily be, by nature, market failure. Instead, because of the high fixed costs associated with networked industries, price competition between too many providers could impair investment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How many competitors should there be? We hear similar complaints in Canada.<\/p>\n

As Ferree’s paper observes, a failed market might observe excessive returns by market participants. But, as the paper observes for the US (and equally applicable in Canada), the supposed duopolists aren’t making excessive profits. Margins for network providers are consistent with other companies. Other so-called duopolies exist in other sectors without the same calls for government intervention, such as Coke and Pepsi; or, Lowes and Home Depot.<\/p>\n

By far, my favourite line from the submission deals with the issue of broadband adoption among people that have access to competitive supply of services:<\/p>\n

As hard as it is for some in Washington to believe, there may be a large swath of middle-America that would rather sit on the front porch, sip lemonade, and chat with their neighbors than update their profiles on Facebook.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have written about this phenomenon in Canada [here<\/a> and here<\/a>]. What we define as affordable, universal access isn’t enough to get people to subscribe.<\/p>\n

The submission is a great contribution to the debate about the role of government in intervening in the marketplace for broadband services. Lines like “When confronted with actual facts, the advocates of heavy-handed regulation are forced to retreat to rhetoric” serve as a challenge to move beyond sound-bites into genuine analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Progress & Freedom Foundation has released a submission by its president, Kenneth Ferree, to the FCC [pdf, 345KB] that makes for an entertaining read. C’mon, how many regulatory submissions are able to squeeze in a citation for Nietzsche by the top of the second page? I found that many of the arguments are as …<\/p>\n

The PFF on broadband<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe PFF on broadband • Telecom Trends<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Progress & Freedom Foundation has released a submission by its president, Kenneth Ferree, to the FCC that makes for an entertaining read. 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