Friday, July 09, 2021

FSF President Randolph May's Statement Regarding President Biden's "Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy"

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."