Macher, Mayo consider unifying telecommunications policy
Jeffrey Macher and John Mayo have released an economic policy vignette “Is it Time to Unify Telecommunications Policy?“ The piece examines past regulatory structures borne in a 20th century era of highly distinct technological delivery mechanisms and a lack of substitutability by consumers across wired and wireless phone services, as well as internet service. Today we face a drastically changed technological landscape and yet have the same regulatory structures. Given that framework, Drs. Mayo and Macher argue that ” public policy must align with the overwhelming marketplace reality that as a consequence of rapidly emerging technologies in the telecommunications and internet sector, consumers have massively altered their communications demand from voice-only service between wired “nodes” to broadband-enabled anywhere anytime voice, data and video service.”
This piece was also part of a larger Georgetown on the Hill discussion Dr. Mayo held today. The event, like the piece, highlighted the disparate regulatory structures facing firms that provide wired and wireless telecommunications and Internet services and asked “what unifying model might better serve as a basis for 21st century telecommunications policy?”
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