The PI Blogs

As I think our CFP members understand, the U.S. and the E.U. have pursued very different tacks in regulation of broadband access. In the wireline space, the U.S. has followed the path of hoping for facilities-based competition (since mostly abandoning the open access regime of the TA96), the E.U. the path of facilities unbundling. U.S. consumer advocates look at the price of broadband access (or the triple play) in parts of Europe and conclude that the U.S. has done something wrong, since it appears, at least superficially, that the prices for bundled services are much lower there. But I have now found economists and business folks in Europe wondering if perhaps the U.S. is in the better position. The operators in Europe have been saying for some time that the current situation in which they find themselves does not provide an incentive to invest in upgraded facilities, so broadband may stagnate. Now others are saying it as well.

In a 2012 paper, “Competition in the Cloud: Unleashing Investment and Innovation Within and Across Platforms”, (Digiworld Economic Journal, no 85, 1st Q 2012, p.45), Tim Cowen and Annabelle Gawer make an argument from the perspective of cloud service providers. They argue that European telecoms regulation, based on traditional EU competition policy, has produced low consumer prices but not necessarily served the best interests of the larger ecosystem. Cloud services in Europe may suffer in comparison with its U.S. competitors. They argue that recent changes in high-level EU competition policy would allow for a re-posturing of current regulation. Of course, such a change might well imply that prices go up, and they are saying that this might be a good thing. In fact, I had an economist tell me that the drive for low prices in Europe (which have the effect of making the regulator look good) may have set consumer expectations at a level too low for a sustainable access infrastructure, and the higher prices in the U.S. may be just the right thing for the future.

Of course, it would be nice to have some real cost data and some real theory here — but theory that appreciates the challenges posed by real markets, industries, and changing technologies.

Unless your tastes run towards thermonuclear theatre (where a true lunatic seems to occupy the throne on the Korean peninsula), the best entertainment these days seems to be the power plays in the mobile and TV cybercosm.
With the social network throne firmly on its crest, Facebook flexed its muscles recently with the launch of its […]

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On March 22, 2013, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced his intention to step down, prompting a flurry of pundit commentary about who might or should be candidate successors. One source touted the top three candidates as Tom Wheeler, a venture capitalist and previous head of the CTIA; Karen Kornbluh, the US Ambassador to the OECD since 2009; and Larry […]

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Netflix’s House of Cards was released last month, spawning a lot of the typical hype regarding its significance as a “game changer” and “turning point,” along with the equally typical debunking of said hype. The most-cited aspects of the show’s launch include the simultaneous release of a full season’s episodes, the predictability of success based on Netflix’s […]

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Two recent studies on mobile phones and privacy in the U.S. got me thinking about what we mean by privacy, specifically in the context of mobile phone usage. Last July, the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology published a report by Urban, Hoofnagle, and Li on Mobile Phones and Privacy. Two months later, the Pew Research Center […]

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Some time ago, I met Gene Pentimonti, who once worked for Sea-Land, a shipping company. Gene and his cohorts changed your life some 50 years ago­ at least as much as the Internet is doing today by developing containerized shipping. Sea-Land built the first container shipping facility in San Diego in the 1950s, and Gene developed […]

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On December 6th, in 1917, a collision between a French munitions ship carrying 2500 tons of high-energy chemistry and a Norwegian relief ship destroyed much of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Almost 2000 people died, 1630 homes were destroyed, and 6000 people were left homeless. All of Canada and New England responded with aid, and to this […]

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The discussions surrounding the upcoming ITU meeting in Dubai have focused attention on the question of compensation when ISPs interconnect. In most cases today, ISPs agree to “peer” on a revenue neutral basis. However, some of the actors that are advocating for ITU involvement have made clear that they would prefer that this norm be […]

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This past July, at the peak of summer camp season, I decided to do some cleaning up of all the items that my kids have outgrown. In addition to books, puzzles, and toys, I boxed up about 300 VCR cassettes and another 300 DVDs that my family has abandoned, mostly in favor of watching movies […]

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In recent months, a number of the largest broadband providers have introduced usage-based pricing plans, including Time Warner Cable, Comcast, AT&T Wireless, and Verizon Wireless. The service providers and proponents of free-market economics argue that flat-rate, “all-you-can-eat” pricing for broadband threatens profitability and continued broadband investment as traffic and its associated costs continue to grow while adoption and new subscription […]

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