Broadband: Should We Regulate High-Speed Internet Access? [Hardcover]

Robert W. Crandall (Editor), James H. Alleman (Editor), Aei-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies (Corporate Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2003

There is wide-spread concern in the US telecommunications industry that public policy may be impeding the continued development of the Internet into a high-speed communications network. Broadband policy is controversial in large part because of the differences in the regulatory regimes faced by different types of carriers. Cable television companies face neither retail price regulation of their cable modem services nor any requirements to make their facilities available to competitors. Local telephone companies, on the other hand, face both retail price regulation for their DSL service and a requirement imposed by the 1996 Telecommunications Act that they "unbundle" their network facilities and lease them to rivals. Finally, new entrants are largely unregulated, but many rely upon the incumbent telephone companies for the last mile or "loop" to connect their customers to their high-speed transport services. This asymmetric regulation is the focus of this volume, in which telecommunications scholars address the public policy issues that have arisen over the deployment of new high-speed telecommunications services.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert W. Crandall is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution.

James H. Alleman is an associate professor in interdisciplinary telecommunications at the College of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Colorado, on leave at Columbia University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Brookings Inst Pr (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815715927
• ISBN-13: 978-0815715924
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,366,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)