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Articles 1 - 30 of 35
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Evolution Of Internet Service Providers From Partners To Adversaries: Tracking Shifts In Interconnection Goals And Strategies In The Internet’S Fifth Generation, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
This paper will examine new models for the carriage of Internet traffic with an eye toward providing insights on how the interconnection process has changed and what positive and negative consequences have resulted. Internet Service Provider (“ISP”) interconnection used to constitute a cooperative undertaking, but now it increasingly requires difficult and protracted negotiations between ventures that consider themselves adversaries in a winner take all transaction. The paper concludes that new commercial arrangements, such as paid peering, can achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. However, the paper also identifies instances where migration from traditional interconnection arrangements can harm consumers by reducing some of …
Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Approaches To Network Neutrality: A Cost Benefit Analysis, Rob Frieden
Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Approaches To Network Neutrality: A Cost Benefit Analysis, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
Many advocates for less intrusive government oversight of telecommunications support the migration from regulation by an expert agency to the use of adjudication remedies largely guided by antitrust/competition policy principles. They believe that competition authorities, or reviewing courts can resolve disputes after they have occurred in lieu of having expert regulatory agencies available to anticipate and resolve problems before they become acute. Such ex post remedies typically determine whether anticompetitive conduct has occurred and what marketplace harm has resulted. Advocates for retaining so-called ex ante regulation believe that an expert agency remains essential particularly in light of fast changing market …
What’S New In The Network Neutrality Debate, Rob Frieden
What’S New In The Network Neutrality Debate, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
For over ten years, academics, practitioners, policy makers, consumers and other stakeholders have debated whether and how governments should regulate the Internet with an eye toward promoting accessibility, affordability and neutrality. This issue has triggered grave concerns about the Internet’s ability to continue generating substantial and widespread benefits. Advocates for various outcomes have vastly different assessments about many baseline subjects including the viability of sustainable competition and self-regulation. Consumers become agitated and confused by different framing of the issues, particularly when participants in the Internet ecosystem cannot reach closure on interconnection and compensation issues. Increasingly these disputes trigger temporary degradation …
Internet Protocol Television And The Challenge Of “Mission Critical” Bits, Rob Frieden
Internet Protocol Television And The Challenge Of “Mission Critical” Bits, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
The Internet increasingly provides an alternative distribution medium for video and other types of high value, bandwidth intensive content. Many consumers have become “technology agnostic” about what kind of wireline or wireless medium provides service. However, they expect carriers to offer access anytime, anywhere, via any device and in any format. These early adopters of new technologies and alternatives to “legacy” media have no patience with the concept of “appointment television” that limits access to a specific time, on a single channel and in only one presentation format. This paper assesses whether and how Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) can offer …
Internet Protocol Television And The Challenge Of “Mission Critical” Bits., Rob Frieden
Internet Protocol Television And The Challenge Of “Mission Critical” Bits., Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
The Internet increasingly provides an alternative distribution medium for video and other types of high value, bandwidth intensive content. Many consumers have become “technology agnostic” about what kind of wireline or wireless medium provides service. However, they expect carriers to offer access anytime, anywhere, via any device and in any format. These early adopters of new technologies and alternatives to “legacy” media have no patience with the concept of “appointment television” that limits access to a specific time, on a single channel and in only one presentation format. This paper assesses whether and how Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) can offer …
New Models And Conflicts In The Interconnection And Delivery, Rob Frieden
New Models And Conflicts In The Interconnection And Delivery, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
As the Internet has evolved and diversified, interconnection terms and conditions have changed between Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”). These carriers experiment with alternatives to conventional models that classify interconnection as either peering or transiting. The former typically involves interconnection between high capacity carriers whose transoceanic traffic volumes generally match thereby eliminating the need for a transfer of funds. Historically smaller carriers have paid transit fees to larger Tier-1 ISPs for the opportunity to secure upstream links throughout the Internet cloud. With the growing availability of bandwidth intensive, video content carried via the Internet, traffic volume disparities have increased between ISPs. …
Net Bias And The Treatment Of “Mission-Critical” Bits, Rob Frieden
Net Bias And The Treatment Of “Mission-Critical” Bits, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
The Internet increasingly provides an alternative distribution medium for video and other types of high value, bandwidth intensive content. Many consumers have become “technology agnostic” about what kind of wireline or wireless medium provides service. However, they expect carriers to offer access anytime, anywhere, via any device and in any distribution format. These early adopters of new technologies and alternatives to “legacy” media have no patience with the concept of “appointment television” that limits access to a specific time, on a particular channel and in a single presentation format. This paper assesses whether and how Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) can …
The Rise Of Quasi-Common Carriers And Conduit Convergence, Rob Frieden
The Rise Of Quasi-Common Carriers And Conduit Convergence, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
The technologies that deliver content to consumers have begun to converge into a single Internet-driven conduit. Such convergence supports a consolidation of previously stand alone markets as evidenced by the ability of ventures to offer a “triple-play” bundle of Internet-delivered video, data and telephone service. Converging technologies and markets eliminate a sharp and identifiable distinction between the service classifications created by Congress and applied by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”). The Commission faces a regulatory quandary in maintaining a clear regulatory dichotomy between carriers operating as private conduits versus carriers subject to government oversight. The former can deliver content, software …
The Impact Of Next Generation Television On Consumers And The First Amendment, Rob Frieden
The Impact Of Next Generation Television On Consumers And The First Amendment, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
Consumers have access to an ever increasing inventory of video content choices as a result of technological innovations, more readily available broadband, new business plans, inexpensive high capacity storage and the Internet’s ability to serve as a single medium for a variety of previously standalone services delivered via different channels. They increasingly have little tolerance for “appointment television” that limits access to a particular time, channel and device. Access to video content is becoming a matter of using one of several software-configured interfaces capable of delivering live and recorded content anytime, anywhere, to any device and via many different transmission …
The Mixed Blessing Of A Deregulatory Endpoint For The Public Switched Telephone Network, Rob Frieden
The Mixed Blessing Of A Deregulatory Endpoint For The Public Switched Telephone Network, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
Receiving authority to dismantle the wireline public switched telephone network (“PSTN”) will deliver a mixture of financial benefits and costs to incumbent carriers. Even if these carriers continue to provide basic telephone services via wireless facilities, they will benefit from substantial relaxation of common carriage duties, no longer having to serve as the carrier of last resort and having the opportunity to decide whether and where to provide service. On the other hand, incumbent carriers may have underestimated the substantial financial and marketplace advantages they also will likely lose in the deregulatory process. This paper will identify the potential problems …
Rationales For And Against Regulatory Involvement In Resolving Internet Interconnection Disputes, Rob Frieden
Rationales For And Against Regulatory Involvement In Resolving Internet Interconnection Disputes, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) provide end users with access to and from the Internet cloud. In addition to providing the first and last mile carriage of traffic, ISPs secure upstream access to sources of content telecommunications carriers typically a paid (transit), or barter (peering) basis. Because a single ISP operates in two separate segments of traffic routing, the terms and conditions of network interconnection and the degree of marketplace competition can vary greatly. In this double-sided market, ISPs typically have many transit and peering opportunities upstream to content providers, but downstream end users may have a limited choice of ISP …
Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden
Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) provide end users with access to and from the Internet cloud. In addition to providing the first and last mile carriage of traffic, ISPs secure upstream access to sources of content via other ISPs typically on a paid (transit), or barter (peering) basis. Because a single ISP operates in two separate segments of traffic routing, both the terms and conditions of network interconnection and the degree of marketplace competition can vary greatly. In this double-sided market, ISPs typically have many transit and peering opportunities upstream to content providers, but downstream end users may have a limited …
Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden
Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) provide end users with access to and from the Internet cloud. In addition to providing the first and last mile carriage of traffic, ISPs secure upstream access to sources of content via other ISPs typically on a paid (transit), or barter (peering) basis. Because a single ISP operates in two separate segments of traffic routing, both the terms and conditions of network interconnection and the degree of marketplace competition can vary greatly. In this double-sided market, ISPs typically have many transit and peering opportunities upstream to content providers, but downstream end users may have a limited …
From Bad To Worst: Assessing The Long Term Consequences Of Four Controversial Fcc Decisions, Rob Frieden
From Bad To Worst: Assessing The Long Term Consequences Of Four Controversial Fcc Decisions, Rob Frieden
Rob Frieden
Far too many major decisions of the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) rely on flawed assumptions about the current and future telecommunications marketplace. If the FCC incorrectly overstates the current state of competition, it risks exacerbating its mistake going forward if actual competition proves unsustainable, or lackluster. In many key decisions the FCC cited robust competition in current and future markets as the basis for decisions that relax restrictions on incumbents, abandon strategies for promoting competition, or apply statutory definitions of services that trigger limited government oversight. The Commission ignores the secondary and tertiary consequences of decisions that deprive it of …
Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden
Rationales For And Against Fcc Involvement In Resolving Internet Service Provider Interconnection Disputes, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) provide end users with access to and from the Internet cloud. In addition to providing the first and last mile carriage of traffic, ISPs secure upstream access to sources of content via other ISPs typically on a paid (transit), or barter (peering) basis. Because a single ISP operates in two separate segments of traffic routing, both the terms and conditions of network interconnection and the degree of marketplace competition can vary greatly. In this double-sided market, ISPs typically have many transit and peering opportunities upstream to content providers, but downstream end users may have a limited …
From Bad To Worst: Assessing The Long Term Consequences Of Four Very Bad Fcc Decisions, Rob M. Frieden
From Bad To Worst: Assessing The Long Term Consequences Of Four Very Bad Fcc Decisions, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Far too many major decisions of the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) rely on flawed assumptions about the current and future telecommunications marketplace. If the FCC incorrectly overstates the current state of competition, it risks exacerbating its mistake going forward if actual competition proves unsustainable, or lackluster. In many key decisions the FCC cited robust competition in current and future markets as the basis for decisions that relax restrictions on incumbents, abandon strategies for promoting competition, or apply statutory definitions of services that trigger limited government oversight. The Commission ignores the secondary and tertiary consequences of decisions that deprive it of …
Legislative And Regulatory Strategies For Providing Consumer Safeguards In A Convergent Information And Communications Marketplace, Rob M. Frieden
Legislative And Regulatory Strategies For Providing Consumer Safeguards In A Convergent Information And Communications Marketplace, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Many ventures involved in information, communications and entertainment (“ICE”) industries have begun to expand their array of offered services. Technological convergence, digitization and the ability of the Internet to handle many different service types within a single bitstream make it possible for companies to offer “quadruple play” bundles of wireless and wireline telephony, video, and Internet access services. Financial and efficiency gains from vertical integration, and the search for new revenues to replace declining margins from maturing and newly competitive services, combine to create robust incentives for carriers to diversify. Diversification by ventures typically results in a single company providing …
Network Neutrality Over The Top: Why The Fcc Should Not Try To Establish Rules Affecting Internet Content And Applications Providers, Rob M. Frieden
Network Neutrality Over The Top: Why The Fcc Should Not Try To Establish Rules Affecting Internet Content And Applications Providers, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) that would codify rules aiming to preserve a free and open Internet for consumers. The NPRM appropriately concentrates on preventing broadband Internet access providers (“IAPs”) from acting as gatekeepers between end-users and online content and application providers. However, the NPRM does invite comments on a proposal of AT&T that openness principles be applied to Internet content and application providers. This article strongly opposes AT&T’s imitative as both unlawful and unwise. The FCC’s appropriate concern about end user access to the Internet via IAPs does not justify an …
Why The Fcc’S Proposed Openness Principles Cannot And Should Not Apply To Internet Application And Content Providers, Rob M. Frieden
Why The Fcc’S Proposed Openness Principles Cannot And Should Not Apply To Internet Application And Content Providers, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) that would codify rules aiming to preserve a free and open Internet for consumers. The NPRM appropriately concentrates on preventing broadband Internet access providers (“IAPs”) from acting as gatekeepers between end-users and online content and application providers. However, the NPRM does invite comments on a proposal of AT&T that openness principles be applied to Internet content and application providers. This paper strongly opposes AT&T’s imitative as both unlawful and unwise. The FCC’s appropriate concern about end user access to the Internet via IAPs does not justify an …
Incentivize Me!—How Incumbent Carriers In The United States Attempt To Extract Greater Deregulation And Incentives In Exchange For Making Next Generation Network Investment, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Incumbent carriers often vilify the regulatory process as a drain on efficiency and an unnecessary burden in light of robust marketplace competition. Some claim that regulation creates disincentives for investing in expensive next generation networks (“NGNs”), particularly if regulations mandate unbundling of services into composite parts, with burdensome interconnection and below market pricing of access by competitors. Both incumbents, prospective market entrants and recent market entrants may seek to tilt the competitive playing field to their advantage typically by securing a regulatory sanction that helps them reduce investment costs, delay having to make an investment, or secure a competitive advantage …
Assessing The Need For More Incentives To Stimulate Next Generation Network Investment, Rob M. Frieden
Assessing The Need For More Incentives To Stimulate Next Generation Network Investment, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Incumbent carriers often vilify the regulatory process as a drain on efficiency and an unnecessary burden in light of robust marketplace competition. Some claim that regulation creates disincentives for investing in expensive next generation networks (“NGNs”), and even accepting subsidies for broadband development if the carrier must provide access to competitors. Without fully assessing the necessity to do so legislators, regulators and judges have accepted the premise that government must create incentives for NGN investment. Incumbent carriers in particular have seized upon the concept of uncertainty as a justification for refraining from making necessary infrastructure investments, despite the onset of …
Case Studies In Abandoned Empiricism And The Lack Of Peer Review, Rob M. Frieden
Case Studies In Abandoned Empiricism And The Lack Of Peer Review, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
In far too many instances, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) engages in results-driven decision making that accrues political dividends at the expense of the public interest. Remarkably, the Commission has used questionable and unverifiable statistics to confirm both the need for greater regulation, but also its abandonment. In the former, a former Chairman of the FCC insisted that data, not even compiled by Commission staff, proved that the cable television market had become so concentrated as to meet a Congressionally legislated trigger for heightened regulatory scrutiny. But in the latter, the FCC has used its statistics to support the conclusion …
Invoking And Avoiding The First Amendment: How Internet Service Providers Leverage Their Status As Both Content Creators And Neutral Conduits, Rob M. Frieden
Invoking And Avoiding The First Amendment: How Internet Service Providers Leverage Their Status As Both Content Creators And Neutral Conduits, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Much of the policy debate and scholarly literature on network neutrality has addressed whether the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has statutory authority to require Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) to operate in a nondiscriminatory manner. Such analysis largely focuses on questions about jurisdiction, the scope of lawful regulation, and the balance of power between stakeholders, generally adverse to government oversight, and government agencies, apparently willing to overcome the same inclination. The public policy debate primarily considers micro-level issues, without much consideration of broader concerns such as First Amendment values. While professing to support marketplace resource allocation and a regulation-free Internet, the …
Invoking And Avoiding The First Amendment: How Internet Service Providers Leverage Their Status As Both Content Creators And Neutral Conduits, Rob M. Frieden
Invoking And Avoiding The First Amendment: How Internet Service Providers Leverage Their Status As Both Content Creators And Neutral Conduits, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Much of the policy debate and scholarly literature on network neutrality has addressed whether the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has statutory authority to require Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) to operate in a nondiscriminatory manner. Such analysis largely focuses on questions about jurisdiction, the scope of lawful regulation, and the balance of power between stakeholders, generally adverse to government oversight, and government agencies, apparently willing to overcome the same inclination. The public policy debate primarily considers micro-level issues, without much consideration of broader concerns such as First Amendment values. While professing to support marketplace resource allocation and a regulation-free Internet, the …
Case Studies In Abandoned Empiricism And The Lack Of Peer Review, Rob M. Frieden
Case Studies In Abandoned Empiricism And The Lack Of Peer Review, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
In far too many instances, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) engages in results-driven decision making that accrues political dividends at the expense of the public interest. Remarkably, the Commission has used questionable and unverifiable statistics to confirm both the need for greater regulation, but also its abandonment. In the former, a former Chairman of the FCC insisted that data, not even compiled by Commission staff, proved that the cable television market had become so concentrated as to meet a Congressionally legislated trigger for heightened regulatory scrutiny. But in the latter, the FCC has used its statistics to support the conclusion …
Incentivize Me!—How Incumbent Carriers In The United States Attempt To Extract Greater Deregulation And Incentives In Exchange For Making Next Generation Network Investments, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Incumbent carriers often vilify the regulatory process as a drain on efficiency and an unnecessary burden in light of robust marketplace competition. Some claim that regulation creates disincentives for investing in expensive next generation networks (“NGNs”), particularly if regulations mandate unbundling of services into composite parts, with burdensome interconnection and below market pricing of access by competitors. Both incumbents, prospective market entrants and recent market entrants may seek to tilt the competitive playing field to their advantage typically by securing a regulatory sanction that helps them reduce investment costs, delay having to make an investment, or secure a competitive advantage …
Lock Down On The Third Screen: How Wireless Carriers Evade Regulation Of Their Video Services, Rob M. Frieden
Lock Down On The Third Screen: How Wireless Carriers Evade Regulation Of Their Video Services, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Wireless handsets increasingly offer subscribers a third screen for accessing the Internet and video programming. The converging technologies and markets that make this possible present a major regulatory quandary, because national regulatory authorities seek to maintain mutual exclusivity between regulated telecommunications services and largely unregulated information services. Many existing and emerging services do not easily fit into one or the other regulatory classification, nor can the Federal Communications Commission determine the appropriate classification by extrapolating from the regulatory model applied to existing or discontinued services. By failing to specify what model applies to services appearing on cellphone screens, the FCC …
Hold The Phone: Assessing The Rights Of Wireless Handset Owners And Carriers, Rob M. Frieden
Hold The Phone: Assessing The Rights Of Wireless Handset Owners And Carriers, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Most subscribers in the United States acquire a subsidized handset when they activate or renew wireless telephone service. In exchange for purchasing a handset below cost, these customers must commit to a two year service term, with substantial financial penalties for early termination, and they must accept carrier-imposed limitations on the use of their handsets. Wireless carriers typically lock subscriber access to one carrier and lock out or thwart unaffiliated providers from providing content, software and applications to wireless handsets. Limitations on the use of wireless handsets juxtaposes with the Carterfone policy established by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) forty …
Lies, Damn Lies And Statistics: Developing A Clearer Assessment, Rob M. Frieden
Lies, Damn Lies And Statistics: Developing A Clearer Assessment, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Depending on the source one can conclude that United States consumers enjoy access to a robustly competitive and nearly ubiquitous marketplace for inexpensive broadband Internet access, or they suffer the consequences of a tightly concentrated industry offering inferior service at high rates. On one hand, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (“NTIA”) and some sponsored researchers offer a quite sanguine outlook, possibly influenced by their appreciation for the political and public relations dividends in compiling positive results. On the other hand, other statistical compilations and interpretations show the U.S. behind in terms of market penetration …
Hold The Phone: Assessing The Rights Of Wireless Handset Owners And Carriers, Rob M. Frieden
Hold The Phone: Assessing The Rights Of Wireless Handset Owners And Carriers, Rob M. Frieden
Rob Frieden
Wireless operators in most nations qualify for streamlined regulation when providing telecommunications services and even less government oversight when providing information services, entertainment and electronic publishing. In the United States, Congressional legislation, real or perceived competition and regulator discomfort with ventures that provide both regulated and largely unregulated services contribute to the view that the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has no significant regulatory mandate to safeguard the public interest. Such a hands off approach made sense when cellular telephone carriers primarily offered voice and text messaging services in a marketplace with six or more facilities-based competitors in most metropolitan areas. …