Countries around the world are increasingly concerned as to whether the adoption of broadband technology by their respective citizens is sufficient to support economic growth and social development. Unfortunately, such concerns are often expressed in terms of where a country ranks among its...

In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) began to grant incumbent local exchange carriers (“LECs”) pricing flexibility on special access services in some Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”) when specific evidence of competitive alternatives is present. The propriety...

Recently, the Bush Administration decided not to seek Supreme Court review of USTA v. FCC (USTA II), where the D.C. Circuit eviscerated the Federal Communications Commission's unbundling rules promulgated pursuant to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. According to the Bush Administration, we...

This essay argues that the core purpose of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was never fundamentally about the deregulation of incumbents or to encourage incumbent investments per se (although certainly an intended eventual consequence) but, as the Supreme Court observed, to "reorganize markets...

This POLICY BULLETIN examines the potential impact of the proposed Cingular/AT&T Wireless merger on both (a) the performance in the national wireless industry; and (b) the potential for wireless "intermodal" competition with fixed line service. After performing both an event study and merger...

In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) began to grant incumbent local exchange carriers (“LECs”) pricing flexibility on special access services in some Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”) when specific evidence of competitive alternatives is present. The propriety...

One important concern for the upcoming and highly-complex voluntary incentive auctions for broadcast television spectrum is the degree to which the largest mobile wireless providers will be allowed to participate. Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice encouraged the Federal Communications...

Market definition is an essential ingredient to competitive and regulatory analysis. Yet, there is significant disparity regarding the definition of the relevant geographic market for high-capacity circuits, commonly referred to as Special Access services. Given the present debate over expanding...

Under Section 629 of the Communications Act, Congress directed the FCC to adopt regulations to promote a retail market for set-top boxes. The Commission's first attempt was the ill-fated CableCard experiment, which - by the Commission's own admission - was a dismal failure. In response, the...

One goal of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“ARRA”) is to provide all Americans with access to affordable broadband services, particularly to those Americans living in rural markets where demand and cost conditions do not favor network deployment. At the same time, there...