Media Advisory
June 7, 2024
Contact: Randolph May at 301-984-8253
Free State Foundation President Randolph J. May and Seth L. Cooper, Director of Policy Studies and Senior Fellow, submitted comments yesterday in the Federal Communications Commission's proceeding requesting comments on the state of competition in the communications marketplace. The extensive data-rich comments demonstrate that the broadband and video services markets are effectively competitive.
The complete set of the Free State foundation comments, with footnotes, is here.
Immediately below are the opening paragraphs of the "Introduction and Summary" to the comments, without the footnotes.
Introduction and Summary
These comments are offered in response to the Commission’s Notice requesting comments for the agency’s upcoming report on the state of competition in the communications marketplace. The primary focus of these comments is on the broadband Internet and video services markets. As these extensive comments demonstrate with an extraordinary amount of data from 2022 and 2023, the conclusion that the broadband and video services markets are effectively competitive is compelling. Indeed, in the face of the compilation of data included in these comments, it almost would require an act of malfeasance for the Commission to conclude anything other than that the broadband and video services markets are effectively competitive.
Of course, the preparation of the Commission’s Competition Report is not intended to be a theoretical or academic exercise. It’s intended to guide the agency’s actions so that they comport with current marketplace realities, not bygone market realities. In other words, the Competition Report findings, if they are true to what the data herein convincingly demonstrate, dictate that the agency implement market-oriented regulatory reform and actions.
Specifically, the Commission should make more mid-band spectrum available for commercial wireless services and refrain from rate regulation of broadband that harms financial returns and incentives for new network investment and prevent states from doing the same. Also, the Commission should decline to move forward with the agency’s proposed restrictions on video service pricing options that undermine market freedom and low-cost opportunities for consumers. Instead, the agency, even if now belatedly, should reduce its legacy regulation of multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs) that put those services at a competitive disadvantage relative to dominant online streaming video services.
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