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High-Tech Execs Advocate Less Regulation to Stimulate Investment
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In January, TechNet, a national network of senior executives of leading technology companies, released a policy statement urging policymakers to make broadband a national priority and to set ambitious goals for making broadband connections available to the nation’s residential and small business consumers. In a paper entitled The Tech Community Fashions A Deregulatory Broadband Policy, Progress & Freedom Foundation Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies Randolph J. May commends the deregulatory thrust of TechNet’s policy proposals, concluding that they “form a solid foundation for crafting sound broadband policy on a going-forward basis along the lines long-advocated by PFF’s policy experts.”
May welcomes the TechNet policy statement as “the most unambiguous statement yet from the high-tech community that formulation of broadband policy should be a national priority and that such policy should embrace ‘minimal regulation’ of broadband services.” In particular, May praises TechNet for recommending that the FCC consider removing unbundling requirements on telephone company investment where such requirements create “significant disincentives to investment in new last-mile broadband deployment.”
May notes that “TechNet’s contribution to the broadband policy debate is timely because it appears that policymakers are finally beginning to focus in earnest on broadband policy and communications reform issues.” Recognizing that others will call for even more regulation of broadband, May concludes that if the TechNet leaders advocate forcefully their proposals, “the chances for convincing policymakers that it is now time for adoption of a deregulatory broadband policy will be increased immensely.”
May has published numerous articles and essays on a wide variety of topics ranging from communications and administrative law to constitutional theory. He writes a regular column on legal and regulatory issues for Legal Times.
The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It is a 501(c)(3) research & educational organization.
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