A Modern Vision for the FCC – New White Paper – Part 7 Modernization Consensus Series

Please don’t miss my new white paper:  A Modern Vision for the FCC: How the FCC Can Modernize its Policy Approaches for the 21^st Century (here/PDF).

• It is the first comprehensive review of FCC policy and vision through the lens of what is modern vs. what is nostalgist.
• Please don’t miss the first slide, a chart that concisely defines modern vs. nostalgist FCC visions.
• My recommendation -- A Modern FCC Policy Agenda -- is near the end of this post.    

NetCompetition Capitol Hill Event:

I will present my white paper on Capitol Hill on Monday November 4, 2013, from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515.

It will be discussed and debated by and esteemed panel of experts:

• John Bergmayer, Public Knowledge;
• Michael Calabrese, New America Foundation;
• Rob Atkinson, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation;
• Hance Haney, Discovery Institute

Outline of the White Paper:

Defining Modern & Nostalgist FCC Visions (Most important slide)

Problems

• America’s Biggest 21^st Century Communications Problems
• The FCC’s Biggest 21^st Century Problems
• The FCC’s Worst Nostalgist Tendencies
• The FCC’s Obsolete Public Interest Test

Solutions

• A Modern Competition Policy
• A Modern Public Interest Test

Recommendation: A Modern FCC Policy Agenda

Appendices:

• Bio
• NetCompetition White Paper 11-15-12: Modern Beats Obsolete In Spurring Economic Growth & Innovation: Modernize Obsolete Communications Law & Spectrum Management

Recommendation: A Modern FCC Policy Agenda

1. Pursue modern policies that are best for America not that are best for the FCC.
2. Determine what FCC authorities/policies are now obsolete by innovation and/or market competition, and forbear. Ask Congress to sunset obsolete laws and modernize what remains.
3. Determine what principle-based authority the FCC needs to protect consumers and the public safety in the 21^st century and formally ask Congress for that authority.
4. Ask Congress to require fiscal accountability for government-used spectrum, to ensure sufficient spectrum below 3GHz is available for auction to meet market demand, and to ensure sufficient spectrum above 3GHz is available for unlicensed use to meet demand.
5. Facilitate, do not impede, market-driven transitions like the IP transition and the spectrum transition from predominantly government use to predominantly public use.
6. Modernize FCC competition policy to be based on market economics and facts, not subsidies and special rules designed to pick winners and losers; recognize wireless and video are competitive and substitutes; and recognize telephone and cable are no longer monopolies.  
7. Modernize the public interest test from 1880’s implicit market assumptions to be applicable to the 21^st century Internet and competitive market realities.
8. Declare it improper & unfair for Government (with coercive regulatory, law enforcement, and tax power) to build/operate government networks that compete with private networks.
9. Future-proof: Only regulate real provable harms based on principles, not technologies that naturally obsolesce, markets that disappear, or companies that can go bankrupt.

Modernization Consensus

Part 1: Implications of Google's Broadband Plans for Competition and Regulation - Part 1 Modernization Consensus Series [1-28-13]

Part 2: Developing Fundamental Consensus for the IP Transition - Part 2 Modernization Consensus Series [1-29-13]

Part 3: Why Europe is Falling Behind America in Broadband - Daily Caller Op-ed -- Part 3 Modernization Consensus Series [2-13-13]

Part 4: Will the New FCC Chair Be a Modernist or Nostalgist? Part 4 Modernization Consensus Series [4-2-13]

Part 5: The FCC Transition – Part 5 Modernization Consensus Series [5-7-13]

Part 6: The Modern FCC Competition-Policy Linchpin - Part 6 Modernization Consensus Series [10-21-13]