Telecompetition: The Free Market Road to the Information Highway [Hardcover]

Lawrence Gasman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 1994

A telecommunications expert says a free market promotes the information superhighway.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Developments in telecommunications are moving at breakneck speed, yet the American people are being deprived of the full benefits of the information revolution because government continues to regulate electronic communications. Telecompetition: The Information Age Imperative is a lively and optimistic book showing that bureaucrats have neither the information nor the incentive to intelligently guide the information revolution, and therefor the only alternative is the free market. Telecompetition is not a luxury; it is an absolute necessity in the modern world. Telecompetition is nothing les than a manifesto on behalf of telecommunications progress. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Hardcover: 177 pages
• Publisher: Cato Institute (March 17, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882577086
• ISBN-13: 978-1882577088
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,181,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Convergence, January 6, 2004

By 

E. Husman "ehusman" (Las Cruces, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Telecompetition: The Free Market Road to the Information Highway (Hardcover)

Gasman introduces the concept of convergence, in which he shows that the main sources of communication are converging into one industry: information. Until now, the print media has been governed by the first amendment free speech protection, while telephones have been constricted by the universal access principal, and radio and television have been controlled by public interest policy. Within the next few years, the lines of distinction will blur sufficiently that if we don't reconsider these paradigms, we may be headed for big trouble, or at least regulatory measures that make less and less sense.

For instance, newspapers are likely to establish a web presence, but they may decide to supplement the stories with live action MPEG recordings. How are these to be regulated - as protected speech (like a newspaper), as universal access (since it comes in over your phone line), or as public interest (like television, and therefore subject to Fairness Doctrine)? Gasman suggests a change in the understanding of the First Amendment based on a property rights approach, in which all information transmission is protected, no matter what the means of recording, transmission, or playback. Gasman also shows that government involvement in the subsidization of infrastructure is neither necessary, nor benign, and usually leads to deceleration rather than acceleration of progress. Consider the initial success and subsequent failure of the Videotex machine in France: many Americans thought that we should emulate this investment in technology, but later recognized that free market investment in additional bandwidth and compression software has put Americans far ahead of the French.