Do not go gentle into that good night.Dylan Thomas
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Dear Vorticians,
I’m keeping this missive short this week because I want your feedback. In exchange for my brevity, which Shakespeare tells us is the soul of wit, I would like all of you to answer a simple question: Should we sunset the FCC? Close it down. Shutter it. (Answers to jgallant@vortex.net )
Why do I ask?
Because I believe it’s time to deregulate telecom. Our age-old regulatory infrastructure is holding back the development of telecom and the emergence of broadband. Need proof? How about the numbers released by the Commerce Department today? The U.S. economy grew in the third quarter by more than 7% – a pace not seen in 20 years. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at the results of the major telecom companies. Telecom remains a mess and that’s because of the confusion and litigiousness resulting from our conflicted telecom policy. It might be better to blame this on a lack of policy, actually, since the White House doesn’t seem to know this marketplace – critical to the U.S. economy – even exists.
Before you answer my question, take a look at these opinions by some smart folks in our field.
In a piece called “Can America Compete?”, Forbes Publisher Rich Karlgaard writes: “America’s telecom system is badly broken. It’s saddled with the highest taxes – outside of alcohol and tobacco – and regulated with a fervor that only a French dirigiste could appreciate. Yet have you heard President Bush utter one word about it? . . . What can President Bush do? He can kill the FCC.”
Read the whole piece at:
https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/1013/041.html
Noted broadband visionary George Gilder raises a similar argument in his Business 2.0 piece called “Making Broadband Bloom.” Gilder writes: “With communications technology doubling its cost-effectiveness annually and Internet traffic increasing by a factor of thousands every few years, the only feasible strategy for Congress, the FCC and the courts is to get out of the way. By deregulating broadband as the prime avenue of interstate commerce, untouchable by state regulators, Congress can ignite a new boom even more far-reaching than the Internet boom.”
If you are a Business 2.0 subscriber you can read the whole piece at https://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,51343,00.html. If not, you can at least read the first few paragraphs.
Network World’s own columnist Scott Bradner also weighed in with “What are regulators good for?”, available at:
https://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2003/1027bradner.html
Bradner cites some of the less-than-critical goals current regulatory regimes are bent on and writes: “Because there is no apparent benefit for normal humans in these and many other regulatory actions, the question pops to mind: What benefit do regulators provide?”
Let’s make this a true Vortician poll. Tell me: Is it time to shutter the FCC? Thoughts to jgallant@vortex.net.
Thanks and bye for now.
