Category Archives: Regulation

A Response to Steven Crowley at GigaOm…

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This past February, we released a paper entitled Wireless Competition After Spectrum Exhaust.  As far as we can tell, this paper was the first serious attempt to model the effect of spectrum exhaust on mobile wireless competition.  We found that the addition of a binding capacity constraint (i.e., spectrum exhaust) to the standard Cournot model of competition reveals that that fewer—not more—firms would lead to lower price, more investment, and more jobs.  Our paper, not unexpectedly, raised a few eyebrows.  (For a CliffsNotes summary of our paper, see my February 8, 2012 blog post.) This weekend, Steven Crowley at GigaOm, Continue Reading »

Thoughts About Today’s Oversight Hearing on the FCC’s Budget and Spending…

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Earlier today, the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held an oversight hearing on entitled “The Budget and Spending of the Federal Communications Commission.”  Given the growing size of the federal bureaucracy, conducting this sort of oversight is indeed welcome news. In his opening statement, Committee Chairman Greg Walden noted that “Last year, the FCC was given a budget of $424.8 million, and the FCC has reported that it can maintain current services with a budget of $421.2 million.  Although that’s less than a one percent decrease, it’s a start, and I appreciate the Continue Reading »

I Can “C” (Block) Clearly Now About Spectrum Auctions…

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The FCC, in its National Broadband Plan, concluded that U.S. commercial mobile carriers desperately need more spectrum, describing an industry operating with “just a fraction of the amount that will be necessary to match growing demand.”  Echoing the concern, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski cautioned that “without action, demand for spectrum will soon outstrip supply. … If we don’t tackle the spectrum crunch now, network congestion will grow, and consumer frustration will grow with it.” In response, Congress is working on a partial solution to the impending shortfall, including authorizing the FCC to conduct an auction in which broadcasters voluntarily transfer Continue Reading »

Wireless Competition Under Spectrum Exhaust (CliffsNotes Edition)…

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As noted in our earlier blog posts, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski seems to be of two minds when it comes to spectrum policy.  On one hand, he has taken great pains throughout his tenure to warn about the crucial issue of spectrum exhaust for commercial spectrum.  As also noted in our earlier blog posts, the FCC under Chairman Genachowski has at the same time expressed grave concerns about the concentrated nature of the U.S. wireless market in its CMRS Reports and, as such, has condemned large transactions such as AT&T/T-Mobile and imposed a de facto spectrum cap when it approved Continue Reading »

The Effect of Spectrum Exhaust on Mobile Market Structure and Performance…

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In an effort to address the current spectrum crunch for commercial spectrum, Congress is working on legislation to empower the FCC to hold voluntary incentive auctions to facilitate the transfer spectrum from broadcasters to mobile carriers.  FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, among others, are complaining loudly that the House version of the bill unduly constricts the FCC’s ability to manipulate the mobile industry by excluding some bidders from the auction (primarily the nation’s two most successful wireless firms that a little more than half of all Americans have chosen as their wireless carrier).  As Larry explained in a post dated January Continue Reading »

Data Roaming, Spectrum Auctions, and the Widening of the Broadband Credibility Gap…

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As I noted in my January 17th blog post, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is complaining loudly that the bill now pending before the House Energy & Commerce Committee would unduly constrict the agency’s ability to condition any voluntary incentive auction for much-needed beachfront broadcast spectrum.  Recently, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt came to his protégé’s defense, noting that: no one will benefit if Congress insists on telling the FCC—as the House bill does—who is eligible to bid or how the auction should be conducted. To have an efficient, fair, unpoliticized, neutral, pro-market auction the FCC should continue to be an Continue Reading »

Obama, Regulation, and the State of the Union…

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At the State of the Union earlier this week, President Obama repeated his professed goal implementing meaningful regulatory reform.  For example, while the President noted that “we need smart regulations to prevent irresponsible behavior”, the President also again recognized that “[t]here is no question that some regulations are outdated, unnecessary, or too costly.” To support his “walking the walk” about meaningful regulatory reform, the President boasted that “I’ve approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his.”  Mr. Obama also boasted that “I’ve ordered every federal agency to eliminate rules that Continue Reading »

Why GigaOM has it Wrong on the Comcast/Verizon Spectrum Deal…

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This past Sunday, Kevin Fitchard wrote a piece in GigaOm entitled If Comcast Can’t Make It in the Wireless Biz, Who Can?  In this piece, Mr. Fitchard laments that Comcast’s decision to sell its AWS spectrum to, and enter into a joint marketing agreement with, Verizon, rather than construct their own 4G network, “raises some troubling questions about the state of the U.S. wireless industry.”  According to Mr. Fitchard, “if a company with a $71 billion market cap and deep roots in the telecom service provider business can’t make a go of the wireless business, what hope is there for Continue Reading »

Final Thoughts on CES: The Rise of the Network Agnostic Device…

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While attending the Consumer Electronics Show last week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski observed in his speech to the assembled technology glitterati that “… virtually every new product on the CES floor is fueled by broadband Internet—by connectivity and bandwidth, wired and wireless.  If you shut off the Internet, virtually nothing on the CES floor would work.”  Certainly, the rapid innovation in edge devices is a wonderful thing.  But, such innovation may not be traveling alone.   That is, economic theory suggests this rapid increase in the number and sophistication of edge devices may be accompanied by an increase in the intensity Continue Reading »

More Observations From CES…

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One of the major stories that came out of CES last week was (in the words of the Wall Street Journal) the “flood” of new Internet content and mobile devices reaching consumers’ living rooms.  In fact, this has been the story coming out of CES for the past few years.  Given such developments, it continues to puzzle me not only that the FCC refuses to announce, at least formally, that it intends to drop its ill-conceived AllVid paradigm, but that it also refuses to announce that it intends to seek to sunset Section 629 of the Communications Act altogether. By Continue Reading »