The Role of Competition in a National Broadband Policy

Due to the nature of the broadband market there are significant tradeoffs between more competition and the goals of efficiency, lower prices, and higher speeds and broader deployment. Thus it is a mistake for policy makers to assume competition is a panacea to all broadband policy problems. In a recent article in the Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law,ITIF President Rob Atkinson unravels the broadband debate from both the perspective of an engineer and an economist and then evaluates the four main policy options towards broadband competition.