Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Right-Sizing Spectrum Auction Licenses: The Case For Smaller Geographic License Areas In The Tv Broadcast Incentive Auction, William H. Lehr Phd, J. Armand Musey Cfa

J. Armand Musey, CFA

The wireless sector is a key contributor to economic activity and growth. Over the next several years, wireless service providers are expected to invest $25 to $53 billion upgrading and expanding their networks to deploy 4G mobile broadband across the nation. All told, wireless broadband investment and the services and innovation supported by such investment are expected to add between $259 and $355 billion to US GDP each year through 2017. The Federal Communications Commission ("Commission" or "FCC") is currently designing the largest ever auction of terrestrial wireless spectrum, currently planned for late 2014 (the "Incentive Auction"). The purpose is …

Using The Morphogenetic Model To Examine Broadband Adoption: A Critical Realist Argument, Paul Jackson, Philip Dobson, Denise Gengatharen

Denise E Gengatharen

In this paper we use Archer’s morphogenetic model (Archer, 1995) to help explain community attitudes and expectations of adoption of broadband in rural communities in Australia. Broadband infrastructure is currently being implemented throughout Australia as part of a government backed National Broadband Network (NBN). Attitudes to this “nation building project” are deeply divided along political, ideological and demographic lines: some see it as transformational, others as a white elephant. Some anticipate great benefits, others would not bother to subscribe. Given this situation and the ambivalent results in other countries with similar programs, we propose to use critical realism as a …

The Broadband Digital Divide And The Economic Benefits Of Mobile Broadband For Rural Areas, James Prieger

James E. Prieger

Broadband is becoming increasingly important to national economies and the personal lives of users. However, broadband availability and adopation are not diffusing in rural and urban areas at the same rates. This article updates the rural broadband digital divide, with special attention paid to mobility. Empirical estimations of broadband provision and usage in the US show that rural areas have fewer high-speed fixed and mobile providers but more slower-speed fixed providers than urban areas. While rural availability of mobile broadband is lower than in urban areas, it still helps fill in gaps in fixed broadband coverage in rural areas. The …

The Impact Of Government Policies On Access To Broadband, James Prieger

James E. Prieger

With a new focus for federal universal service programs on broadband and the NTIA BTOP funding for broadband adoption projects, recent years have been “exciting times” for those interested in broadband policy aimed at stimulating adoption. While most of the recent programs are still too new to be evaluated rigorously, lessons from older academic study can inform our expectations and lend guidance toward evaluating program success. In this brief work, I review what we know from the last decade and a half of literature on the impact of regulation on broadband adoption, discuss the (mostly woeful) attempts at evaluating adoption …

The Empirics Of The Digital Divide: Can Duration Analysis Help?, James Prieger, Wei-Min Hu

James E. Prieger

Accurate measurement of digital divides is important for policy purposes. Empirical studies on broadband subscription gaps have largely used cross-sectional data, which cannot speak to the timing of technological adoption. Yet, the dynamics of a digital divide are important and deserve study. With the goal of improving our understanding of appropriate techniques for analyzing digital divides, we review competing econometric methodology and propose the use of duration analysis. We compare the performance of alternative estimation methods using a large dataset on DSL subscription in the U.S., paying particular attention to whether women, blacks, and Hispanics catch up to others in …

The Rules Of The Road Or Roadblocks On The Information Highway? Regulation And Innovation In Telecommunications, James Prieger, Daniel Heil

James E. Prieger

Regulatory policy in telecommunications must balance short-term efficiency (low prices) against the firms’ incentives to innovate, which have longer reaching impacts on economic welfare. Historically, policy tended to sacrifice dynamic efficiency for the sake of competitive prices and static efficiency. In the last few decades, economists and other researchers have begun to document the large welfare costs of ignoring dynamic efficiency. We analyze the impact regulation has on innovation in a simple theoretical framework. We then turn to the empirical evidence that regulation dampens firms’ incentive to innovate in the telecommunications industry in general and the market for broadband Internet …

The Broadband Digital Divide And The Nexus Of Race, Competition, And Quality, James Prieger, Wei-Min Hu

James E. Prieger

We examine the gap in broadband access to the Internet between minority groups and white households with geographically fine data on DSL subscription. In addition to income and demographics, we also examine quality of service and competition as components of the Digital Divide. The gaps in DSL demand for blacks and Hispanics do not disappear when income, education, and other demographic variables are accounted for. However, lack of competition is an important driver of the Digital Divide for blacks. Service quality is an important determinant of demand, and ignoring it masks the true size of the DSL gap for Hispanics.

Economics At The Fcc, 2008-2009: Broadband And Merger Review, James Prieger, Michelle Connolly

James E. Prieger

Many issues have come before the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) in the last year. Some actions were taken (as with particular mergers), some actions were postponed (as with Universal Service Fund reform), and some issues are currently being tackled (the National Broadband Strategic Plan). In this paper, we focus on the topic of the National Broadband Plan, which the FCC is mandated to provide to Congress February 17, 2010, the FCC Merger Review process, and the determination of optimal penalties for violations of FCC rules or orders.

The Future Of Digital Communications Research And Policy, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.

Residential And Business Broadband Prices Part 2: International Comparisons, Scott J. Wallsten, James Riso

Scott J. Wallsten

For this project, we assemble a new dataset consisting of more than 25,000 residential and business broadband plans from all OECD countries from 2007–2009. We explore three issues: the relationship between plan components—such as metering—and consumer prices, price changes over time, and how broadband prices vary across countries.

This paper, part 2 of the project, studies prices and price changes over time in the United States and other OECD countries. We find that residential prices in the U.S. remained fairly stable overall in this time period for both standalone and triple play (voice, video, and data) plans, though prices for …

Optical Fibre Access Networks And The Recession, Ewan Sutherland

Ewan Sutherland

The economic recession has been an opportunity for the telecommunications industry to call for investment in optical fibre access networks as a stimulus towards economic recovery. This argument is tested against the background of developments in Singapore, France, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Unbundled Local Loops - Global Best Practice, Ewan Sutherland

Ewan Sutherland

A review of experiences in a number of markets where local loop unbundling has been attempted. Concluding that the policy is unlikely to be effective in most developing countries because of the lack of local loops, their poor quality and the limited capacity of regulators to enforce non-discriminatory access.

Broadband Penetration: An Empirical Analysis Of State And Federal Policies, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

No abstract provided.