To Nationalize or Not; and What About the Trade Commission?
The 5G buildout is hampered on some areas by extortionate rents on small cell sites. These fees are driven the need of some municipalities – such as San Jose, California – to raise money for pension costs. While we’re sympathetic to retirees, there are ways to meet these needs without wrecking the technology sector.
Questions for Witnesses in Tomorrow’s Net Neutrality Hearing
Net neutrality was created at a time when the only large firms conducting Internet business were ISPs. It was sensible for lawmakers to focus on ISPs in 2003. But today’s Internet is dominated by non-ISP edge services that routinely abuse personal information. Internet law need to leap forward to the present day.
Enough Raw Meat Internet Policy, Congress!
The task for Congress is simple and straightforward: it needs to prioritize the issues that plague the Internet today in order to prevent them from getting worse.
Books, Books, and more Books!
If you’re a fan of books on tech and tech policy this is a particularly good time for you because so much new stuff is hot off the presses. Here’s a short list of the books in my reading queue at the moment, along with a couple of longish journal articles.
Sharing Federal Spectrum by Contract
Applications that can’t be supported by LTE and its progeny probably can be supported by a small number of alternative technologies that have commercial applications. So sharing by contract should be the default mode.
The Big Picture: Globalization 4.0
t’s great to have a nation with China’s resources developing technology products that can be used all over the world. This keeps US firms such as Cisco and European firms like Ericsson on their toes. But at the end of the day, users of these products need to be allowed to choose on the basis of product quality rather than nation-of-origin leverage.
Broadband Speed Improving Faster
5G isn’t here yet, but it’s already stimulating a competitive response from incumbents. Better broadband plans and prices than we might see without this looming threat are entering the market.
Net Neutrality is Antitrust for Dummies
The US Internet is now free of the restrictions imposed by the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order. Advocates argue that it’s also free of the protections the order provided to…
Don’t Ask Zuckerberg about Shadow Profiles
At a minimum, Facebook needs to reorganize the company in such a way that a single CEO can exercise effective control over its major pieces. An Alphabet-like reshuffling with a new level of management would at least signal seriousness about improvement.
Senate Pretends to Save the Internet
Senate Democrats and their pals in Silicon Valley and in the media had a good day. But life goes on and the serious issues remain to be addressed. That’s why it’s not merely a talking point to say that bi-partisan legislation absolutely needs to be written for the orderly regulation of entire Internet.