ITIF President Rob Atkinson will join former President Bill Clinton, Fareed Zakaria, Former FCC Chairman Reed Hunt, Arianna Huffington and others at an event in Washington on March 16th from 9:30am to 1:30pm at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center to discuss these issues. On that occasion ITIF will release a new report explaining how the dot-com economy has been, and will likely continue to be, one of the principal drivers of economic growth and quality of life throughout the globe.

ITIF is pleased to host the team from the Federal Communications Commission spearheading the development of recommendations to integrate broadband into key components of society – and people’s daily lives.

Last year, Silicon Flatirons co-hosted events, respectively, with Public Knowledge on FCC reform, and ITIF on innovation economics and new models of governance. This conference is a follow-up and confluence of those two topics: Where do we stand on efforts at FCC reform? And how do new models of governance and standard-setting fit into that reform effort?

A new report by ITIF Research Fellow Richard Bennett explains how mobile networks are changing as they become part of the Internet, the implications mobile networking has for public policy, and how policymakers can facilitate the flowering of the mobile Internet.

Watch the event release for a new report A new report by ITIF Research Fellow Richard Bennett explains how mobile networks are changing as they become part of the Internet, the implications mobile networking has for public policy, and how policymakers can facilitate the transition to mobile broadband.

The Internet is a complex “virtual network” designed to serve a variety of needs, and as such it does not readily lend itself to traditional telecom regulatory models. This filing urges the FCC to proceed with caution on open Internet rules.

In an article in the journal Regulatory and Economic Policy in Telecommunications, published in Spain by Telefónica, Rob Atkinson discusses next generation broadband networks (NGNs).

ITIF Senior Fellow, Richard Bennett discusses how video, peer-to-peer and other recent trends are dramatically altering how the internet is being used.

If the United States is to achieve the promise of the broadband revolution it will need to ensure that a much larger share of Americans are subscribers. And while policies to spur the deployment of broadband networks are important in achieving that goal, policies to spur adoption are even more important.

Digital infrastructure, specifically broadband, supports jobs both within the broadband industry and throughout the economy. If capital expenditure falls, either through unfavorable market conditions or regulatory or other actions taken by government investment levels will decline and jobs will likely be lost, at least in the short term.

Should wireless handset manufacturers like Apple and Palm be forbidden to share innovation risks with network operators? Congress and the FCC have been besieged by advocates seeking a ban on the marketing arrangements that make risk-sharing possible, but the technology mandate necessary to accomplish the goal would impair innovation

ITIF lays out ten key questions it believes are critical to answer accurately before any regulatory decisions are made.

ITIF Research Fellow Richard Bennett filed comments with the FCC regarding regulatory approaches to licensed and unlicensed wireless spectrum. The filing offers preliminary guidance on encouraging innovation and investment in wireless networks by moving the FCC’s regulatory approach fully into the digital realm.

Many advocates of strict net neutrality regulation argue that the Internet has always been a “dumb pipe” and that Congress should require that it remains so. A new report by ITIF Research Fellow Richard Bennett reviews the historical development of the Internet architecture and finds that contrary to such claims, an extraordinarily high degree of intelligence is embedded in the network core.

While well intentioned, congressman Ed Markey’s (D-MA) Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009 fails to address the core issues within the net neutrality debate, and in doing so may cause more harm than good.

Complaints by public interest advocates about being excluded from the FCC’s technology workshops amount to “working the refs”.

In his recent blog post ITIF Research Fellow Richard Bennett discusses the false net neutrality crisis triggered by reactions to an inadvertent Denial of Service Attack caused by 4chan.org.

In this FCC filing ITIF discusses the policy and non-policy factors that affect broadband deployment and outlines an appropriate policy framework for a successful national broadband strategy.

In a wide ranging discussion, a roundtable jointly sponsored by ITIF and Silicon Flatirons focused in on some of those points as well as highlighted some continuing areas of disagreement among a group of thoughtful policy observers and key stakeholders. The new ITIF-Silicon Flatirons report, A Roundtable on the End of Scarcity, Open Architecture, and the Future of Broadband Competition Policy, is a summary of that roundtable discussion.

In a testimony before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, Rob Atkinson discusses why discriminatory taxes on wireless services have a negative impact on economic growth and innovation.

One of most heated broadband policy debates concerns whether broadband in general, and fiber networks in particular, should be provided by private carriers or local governments. In an article in “The FTTH Prism,” Rob Atkinson and George Ou argue that that despite the promises of municipal fiber, the actual success rate of these community fiber projects has been lukewarm at best and in many cases a failure at worst. The article explains why fiber is not necessarily the only technology to focus on, how faster speeds are evolving, why municipal fiber “over-build” projects are economically inefficient, and why municipal fiber hasn’t succeeded in many cases. Finally, it presents a policy framework for thinking about this issue. (see page 17)

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.

In this report, ITIF argues that supporting the deployment of faster broadband networks will be crucial to enabling next-generation Web-based applications and services that will play important roles in improving quality of life and boosting economic growth. While getting broadband service to the Americans who lack it is an important policy target, next-generation broadband will deliver a wave of new benefits to consumers, society, businesses, and the economy.

In a new report, “A Policymaker’s Guide to Network Management,” ITIF Senior Analyst George Ou explains how advanced networks actually work and documents how, if ISPs are to provide customers a good Internet service and operate their networks efficiently, they must be able to allocate bandwidth between users and apply network management tools to shape traffic from multiple applications. However, Ou argues that ISPs can and should do this in a fair and non-discriminatory manner.

This blog post examines whether the push to reregulate financial services industries will lead to calls to reregulate the telecommunications sector, particularly with regard to broadband and wireless telephony.

Rob Atkinson appears on the Brian Lehrer show 30 Issues: Internet and Broadcast Regulation.

The Internet has become a multi-service converged network that transports telephony, data, and video for millions of users. Some of those applications cause problems for other applications and this has prompted broadband providers like Comcast to proactively manage their network. Comcast will switch to a more accurate “Protocol Agnostic” network management system by year end. This FCC filing examines how P2P applications harm telephony applications even during low levels of utilization, how traffic shaping technologies can resolve these problems, and how Comcast’s new Protocol Agnostic network management system will work to protect VoIP services.

A report examining broadband promotion policies in 9 nations finds that while we shouldn’t look to other nations for silver bullets or assume that practices in one nation will automatically work in another, U.S. policymakers can and should learn from broadband “best practices” in other nations. Emulating the right policies here will enable the U.S. to increase our broadband performance faster than in the absence of proactive policies. Based on the findings from other nations, the report proposes 11 policy recommendations to spur both deployment of more ubiquitous and faster networks and adoption of broadband by consumers.

ITIF recently submitted comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on the Midterm Review of the Joint Project Agreement (JPA). In its commentary, ITIF states that the U.S. government should continue its historic role in providing oversight to the Internet's domain name and addressing system. The U.S. government has had and continues to play an important role in maintaining the security, stability, and openness of the Internet. The JPA provides an effective backstop to ICANN's original operating principles, helping it to operate in a more open and transparent way.

ITIF recently submitted comments to the FCC on the Petition for Declaratory Ruling Regarding Internet Management Policies. In its commentary, ITIF states that universal access to broadband is an important goal and that users have the right to access lawful Internet content. Yet, even with aggressive deployment of higher speed networks, bandwidth will continue to be scarce for the foreseeable future. As a result, ISPs should have the right to reasonably manage their networks to ensure a fair and efficient distribution of bandwidth among their subscribers. As long as ISPs’ network management policies are transparent, fair, and their express purpose is to address the impact of certain data-intensive traffic on the network, they are in accordance with the FCC’s Internet access principles. The notion that broadband networks are in some way fundamentally different than other networks and should deal with capacity limitations only through network expansion is not supported by either logic or the long evidence from other network infrastructures.

It is difficult to pick up a business or technology magazine without reading that the United States is falling behind other nations in broadband telecommunications. In a new article in the telecommunications law journal CommLaw Conspectus, ITIF President Rob Atkinson demonstrates just how far the U.S. has fallen behind, and outlines the economic rationale for a national broadband strategy, showing why the market alone will not generate the societally optimal level of broadband in the foreseeable future. Atkinson then weighs various broadband policy priorities, offering a framework for crafting a national broadband policy.

In a recent blog post, Art Brodsky, Director of Communications at the advocacy group Public Knowledge, launched a broadside attack on ConnectKentucky and Connected Nation, public private partnerships focused on bringing broadband telecommunications to rural communities. ITIF President Rob Atkinson responds with a posting on the Alliance for Public Technology’s blog, arguing that Brodsky’s attack is not only misguided and illogical, but is motivated by a kind of Internet populism, rather than by the pragmatic goal of bringing broadband to rural Americans.

ITIF has released a paper on proposed legislation to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and, in particular, on proposals to deny immunity to telecommunications carriers that complied with the federal government's surveillance program post 9/11. The paper makes two key points. First, the Bush Administration was wrong in not working with Congress from the beginning in implementing its post-9/11 emergency surveillance program. Second, the focus of Congress' efforts should be on updating FISA, not on holding telecommunications carriers legally liable for complying with what they believed was a legal government order.

ITIF Senior Analyst Julie Hedlund’s testimony on U.S. programs and legislation to support rural broadband access for the House Appropriations Agriculture Subcommittee.

ITIF Research Analyst Daniel Correa’s article in the forthcoming issue of IEEE Internet Computing Journal that documents how other nations have more robust broadband than the United States and offers a framework for thinking about broadband policy to accelerate America down the path to next-generation broadband.

A luncheon briefing on how the latest developments in communications technologies are improving the ability of public safety organizations to keep us safer. See event details and video.

The Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) has reduced the cost of Internet access, spurred investment in the digital economy, and contributed to nine years of economic growth. However, the ITFA will expire in November 2007 unless Congress takes action. In this report we explain why Congress should make the current moratorium permanent and eliminate the grandfather clause which allows some states to tax Internet access at the expense of the nation as a whole. The report discusses the legislative history of the ITFA and the national benefits of tax free Internet access. Finally, we review the objections cited by opponents of the moratorium and explain why these objections are unfounded.

The social returns from investing in more broadband exceed the private returns of companies and consumers. As a result, market forces alone will not generate the societally optimal level of broadband, at least for the foreseeable future. In this report, Robert Atkinson lays out the case for a proactive national broadband strategy to maximize overall societal welfare. The report documents four types of economic externalities that limit the market’s capacity to reach the optimal level of broadband adoption without policies to encourage deployment and uptake. It then discusses a number of proactive policies on the supply and demand side which could spur faster broadband deployment and adoption.

ITIF’s submitted comments on FCC’s proposed revisions to its broadband data collection. The commentary makes suggestions for improving existing methods of data collection, and proposes an alternative user-generated mapping model that would enlist public participation to generate precise local broadband data. ITIF recommends creating a website where consumers could automatically test the speed of their broadband connection and enter additional information, including their location and monthly broadband cost. With the help of mapping technology such as that offered by Google Maps, the resulting proliferation of data points could very quickly yield a nationwide picture of local broadband deployment, prices and speeds.

ITIF comments discussing the economic and technological benefits that would result from the BellSouth-AT&T merger.

ITIF President Rob Atkinson and University of Colorado Professor of Law and Telecommunications Phil Weiser argue that the current state of the network neutrality debate denies the reasonable concerns articulated by each side and obscures the contours of a sensible solution. They outline those concerns, as well as the claims made by both sides that they believe are not factually correct or economically supportable. They then propose a three-part, "third way" solution that allows incumbent broadband providers to offer managed broadband services, provided that they also offer a basic and growing open, non-discriminatory "best-efforts" Internet pipe to broadband consumers.

According to new statistics from the OECD, the United States remains stuck in the middle of the pack among OECD nations in broadband telecommunications adoption. This ITIF policy brief analyzes U.S. broadband performance compared to other nations and argues that the traditional excuses for poor U.S. performance, particularly the argument that leading nations have higher population densities, no longer holds.