Free State Foundation President Randolph May issued the following statement in reaction to President Biden’s "Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy"
"Like President Obama before him, President Biden may have a 'pen and a phone,' and thus can issue Executive Orders until the inkwell runs dry. But for an executive order to further policies that are proper and that benefit consumers and businesses, it’s important to get the underlying facts straight. The Executive Order sections dealing with the Internet and broadband are sadly lacking, whether because the Biden Administration has willfully ignored facts or has not yet bothered to assemble them. If the EO’s recommendations were to be implemented, the progress realized in the last few years regarding broadband deployment and Internet access likely would be reversed to the detriment of all Americans, especially those currently on the wrong side of remaining digital divides.
The
EO ignores the fact that over 93% of American households have access to two or
more providers of broadband service, and that this figure has continued to grow
in the last several years. Indeed, 92 percent of Americans already have access
to broadband at 100 Mbps speeds. And while the EO says that prices can be "as
much as five times higher" in markets with only one or two providers,
all of the available data show that, on average, broadband prices have been
declining — while other consumer prices are rapidly rising — across
the board. So, it is wrong for the EO to cherry pick a possible outlier, or two
and then further attempt to muddle matters by employing the amorphous "as
much as" qualifier.
Finally,
the call to restore the Obama Administration’s net neutrality rules is
especially misguided. While the EO suggest that broadband providers "can
use" their purported power to discriminatorily block or slow down online
services, it is telling that there is no claim they have done so. Indeed, in
the competitive broadband environment that now generally exists in the real
world digital marketplace, rather than in mindsets still stuck in last
century’s analog era, competition among providers will protect consumers far
better than reimposition of Title II utility-style regulation. Moreover, there
was convincing evidence that capital investment slowed after the Obama-era FCC
adopted utility-style net neutrality regulation in 2015 and picked up again
once those rules were repealed early in 2018.
If the Biden Administration wants to play a constructive role in achieving ubiquitous access to broadband and closing remaining digital divides, it should urge adoption of policies that direct government subsidies, in a technologically neutral and targeted manner, to currently unserved areas and to low-income persons who otherwise would not be able to afford service."
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