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Full-Text Articles in Law
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 …
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 …