Digital Crossroads : American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age

by Nuechterlein, Jonathan E.; Weiser, Philip J.

• ISBN13: 9780262640664
• ISBN10: 026264066X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-03-30
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

Telecommunications policy profoundly affects the economy and our everyday lives. It sets the ground rules for how people send and receive information, whether through telephones or television or the Internet. Yet accounts of important telecommunications issues tend to be either superficial (and inaccurate) or mired in jargon and technical esoterica. In Digital Crossroads, Jonathan Nuechterlein and Philip Weiser offer a clear, balanced, and accessible analysis of how the Internet is transforming not just the economics of the telecommunications industry, but also the legal and policy debate about how- and whether-that industry should be regulated. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Jonathan E. Nuechterlein is a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in Washington, D.C. Philip J. Weiser is Professor of Law and Telecommunications at the University of Colorado and Executive Director and Founder of the Silicon Flatirons Telecommunications Program

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Preface to the Paperback Edition	p. xv
Preface	p. xxix
The Big Picture	p. 1
Economic Principles	p. 3
Network effects and interconnection	p. 4
Economies of scale and density	p. 10
Monopoly leveraging and the concept of "information platforms"	p. 16
Convergence	p. 23
Introduction to Wireline Telecommunications	p. 31
A Primer on Wireline Technology	p. 32
Transmission pipes: loops and transport	p. 33
The basics of wireline transmission	p. 33
The fiber glut	p. 36
Regulatory distinctions among transmission pipes	p. 38
Switches	p. 39
Circuit switches	p. 40
Packet switches	p. 42
Traditional Telephone Rate Regulation	p. 45
The basics of price regulation	p. 45
The regulatory compact	p. 46
Dual jurisdiction	p. 47
Access charges	p. 49
Tariffs	p. 50
Price caps	p. 51
Introduction to universal service policies	p. 52
Wireline Competition Policy Before 1996	p. 55
Telecommunications equipment manufacturing	p. 57
Long distance competition and the AT&T consent decreee	p. 60
Competitive access services	p. 64
The first steps towards "local exchange" competition	p. 66
Wireline Competition Under the 1996 Act	p. 69
The Objectives	p. 69
The Wireline Competition Provisions	p. 74
A taxonomy of carriers and services	p. 76
Addressing network effects: interconnection and collocation	p. 79
Addressing scale economies: "network elements" and "resale"	p. 80
Leasing an incumbent's network elements	p. 80
Reselling an incumbent's retail services	p. 84
Procedures for implementing the local competition provisions	p. 85
Addressing monopoly leveraging concerns: section 271	p. 88
UNEs and the "Impairment" Standard	p. 91
Network element entry strategies	p. 92
The rise and fall of UNE-P	p. 98
The early terms of the UNE-P debate	p. 39
The Triennial Review Order and USTA II	p. 102
The aftermath of USTA II	p. 105
Loop-transport combinations	p. 108
A Primer on Internet Technology	p. 115
The Basics	p. 115
From analog to digital	p. 115
Modularity and layering	p. 118
The logic of the Internet	p. 121
E-mail and the World Wide Web	p. 125
The Internet's Physical Infrastructure	p. 128
Beginnings	p. 129
The Internet backbone	p. 131
The last mile: from narrowband to broadband	p. 134
The chicken-and-egg problem	p. 134
The business market	p. 138
The mass market	p. 140
Monopoly Leveraging Concerns and the Internet	p. 149
The History and Economics of Monopoly Leveraging Concerns in the Internet Marketplace	p. 151
The Computer Inquiries	p. 151
Monopoly leveraging concerns in a broadband world	p. 155
Three Proposals for Addressing Monopoly Leveraging Concerns	p. 158
Multiple ISP access	p. 159
"Net neutrality" and the end-to-end principle	p. 168
The asserted need for Net neutrality rules	p. 171
The potential costs of Net neutrality rules	p. 174
Wireline broadband unbundling rules	p. 179
The terms of debate	p. 179
Line sharing	p. 182
Next generation networks	p. 184
VoIP and Proposals for "Horizontal" Regulation	p. 191
Introduction to VoIP	p. 191
The Regulatory Treatment of VoIP Services	p. 197
IP-to-IP services	p. 198
PSTN-to-PSTN services	p. 200
IP-to-PSTN services: the basics	p. 201
IP-to-PSTN services: classification and jurisdiction	p. 204
VoIP, "Horizontal" Regulation, and Title I	p. 209
Calls for a layers-oriented model of regulation	p. 209
Title I, Title II, and forbearance	p. 213
The contours of the FCC's ancillary jurisdiction	p. 216
The Spectrum	p. 225
Revolution in the Air	p. 227
The Basics of Traditional Spectrum Regulation	p. 231
Allocation	p. 233
Assignment	p. 235
Beyond Command-and-Control	p. 239
Property rights	p. 242
The Easter Bunny wins the Breakness	p. 243
Controversy in the transition	p. 245
Commons: Einstein's cat in the age of the mouse	p. 251
From theory to practice	p. 257
Mobile Wireless Services	p. 261
The Basics of Cellular Technology	p. 262
The Regulatory Landscape	p. 267
Categories of wireless telephony licenses	p. 267
The general deregulation of wireless telephony	p. 270
Interoperability Among Wireless Networks	p. 274
Wireless-Wireline Competition and Regulatory Parity Questions	p. 281
Number portability	p. 283
"Enhanced 911" mandates	p. 287
Intercarrier Compensation	p. 291
The Crazy-Quilt of Intercarrier Compensation Schemes	p. 293
Access charge arbitrage scandals-and their origin in regulatory artificiality	p. 293
The ISP reciprocal compensation controversy	p. 296
Intercarrier compensation and VoIP	p. 303
Intercarrier compensation rules for wireless and transiting carriers	p. 306
The Economics of Intercarrier Compensation Reform	p. 308
The economic logic of the "terminating access monopoly"	p. 310
The antiregulatory solution: freedom to deny interconnection	p. 313
The highly regulatory solution: calling-network-pays	p. 315
The moderately regulatory solution: bill-and-keep	p. 319
Intercarrier Compensation Reform and the 1996 Act	p. 324
Universal Service in the Age of Competition	p. 333
The Political and Economic Dynamics of Universal Service	p. 334
Universal Service Funding Mechanisms	p. 339
The basics	p. 339
The case of "rural" carriers	p. 344
Universal Service Contribution Mechanisms	p. 348
Universal Service in a Broadband World	p. 352
Competition in the Delivery of Television Programming	p. 357
The Basics of Television Programming Delivery	p. 360
Regulation of Relationships Among Video Distribution Platforms	p. 363
Retransmission consent	p. 363
Must carry	p. 365
Satellite retransmission of broadcast signals	p. 367
The program access rules	p. 369
Regulation of Relationships Between TV Programming Producers and Distributors	p. 371
Broadcast networks	p. 372
Cable television	p. 375
Restrictions on Ownership of Television Broadcast Stations	p. 378
Telecommunications Standards, Technological Transitions, and Digital Television	p. 385
An Overview of Telecommunications Standards	p. 387
The era of Bell and Sarnoff	p. 387
Current standard-setting institutions	p. 389
The economics of standard-setting and the role of the FCC	p. 392
The Digital Television Case Study	p. 395
The development effort	p. 396
The deployment effort	p. 398
Digital must carry and the statutory 85% threshold	p. 400
Content providers and digital rights management	p. 402
The Future of Telecommunications Policy	p. 407
Digital Juggernaut	p. 409
First Principles of Institutional Reform	p. 411
Four values for managing competition policy	p. 411
Judging Congress	p. 413
The antitrust alternative	p. 414
The FCC in Transition	p. 419
Determinacy	p. 419
Relations with reviewing courts	p. 421
Relations with the states	p. 422
Relations with coordinate merger review authorities	p. 423
Neutrality	p. 426
Humility	p. 428
The Pricing of Network Elements	p. 431
The basics	p. 431
Historical cost	p. 433
Forward-looking cost	p. 435
Where forward-looking and historical costs diverge	p. 440
Varieties of forward-looking cost methodologies	p. 443
Prospects for revisions to TELRIC	p. 448
Enforcement Mechanisms Under the 1996 Act	p. 455
The FCC's enforcement apparatus	p. 455
Enforcement of interconnection agreements	p. 458
Statutory Addendum	p. 461
List of Notable Commentaries	p. 493
Table of Authorities	p. 513
Notes	p. 533
Index	p. 643
Glossary of Acronyms	p. 667
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