Blog

Spotlighting Threat of UN Regulation of Internet at CPAC Today

February 10, 2012

I will be on the CPAC Digital Liberty panel today (February 10, 2012) with FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, Kelly Cobb of ATR and Ryan Radia of CEI. The very important sleeper issue I expect we will spotlight for the CPAC audience is the imminent threat...

Spectrum: To Auction or Not to Auction?

February 7, 2012

The FCC’s recent call for unbounded spectrum auction authority spotlights an important debate over whether some of this scarce and extremely valuable wireless spectrum should be auctioned or not. • Ironically the FCC is asking Congress to give it spectrum auction authority to not auction...

Why the Verizon-Cable Agreement Increases Competition

February 6, 2012

Reports that the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the Verizon Wireless-Cable agreement spotlights an old truism: What one looks for, one sees. What the Government ultimately sees here largely will depend on whether the Government looks backward through an analog competitive lens...

Where’s the Market for Online Privacy?

January 31, 2012

Why are market forces so weak in protecting users’ online privacy? The main reason is that the online marketplace is economically structured around users being a commodity, data, to be aggregated and mined, not customers to be served and protected in a competitive marketplace. That’s...

Twitter’s Realpolitik & The Sovereign-ization of the Internet

January 27, 2012

Reports that “Twitter Can Censor by Country” is a perfect example of how the world is changing the Internet. Change is a two-way street. Conventional wisdom that only assumes the Internet is changing the world risks being blind-sided by the Internet’s underappreciated exa-trend: how the...

FCC Seeks Unbounded Spectrum Auction Authority

January 17, 2012

At CES, the FCC signaled that it opposed any effort by Congress to give the FCC policy direction or to establish any checks and balances on the FCC in authorizing incentive auctions of prime TV broadcast spectrum. See my Forbes Tech Capitalist post “FCC Seeks...

Seven Ways the World is Changing the Internet

January 13, 2012

Since most people focus on how the Internet is changing the world, few focus on the reverse — how much the world is changing the Internet. See My Forbes Tech Capitalist blog post to learn the “Seven Ways the World is Changing the Internet.” ...

Obsolete Television Law Needs Modernization

January 4, 2012

Important free market communications legislation introduced in mid-December warrants flagging because it brings needed attention to a real and growing problem, how obsolete communications law stifles innovation, growth and consumer benefit. See my Forbes Tech Capitalist post on the DeMint-Scalise bill, “The Next Generation Television...

Does FCC Want to Become The Federal Video Programming Commission?

December 21, 2011

This week an FCC Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ordered Comcast to carry The Tennis Channel in the same tier and channel neighborhood as The Golf Channel and Versus, another sports channel. Given the deep flaws in the ALJ’s highly-intrusive, and micro-managing decision, there are several...

Emily Litella Meets Google Wallet