Liberalize Telecommunications

Full Document Available in PDF

Appeals to the “public interest” and claims of airwave scarcity have long been invoked to justify telecommunications regulation. But in today’s world, policy makers starting from a clean slate likely would not create a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with control over prices, entry, and service delivery.  Internet-based technologies have helped erase distance, allowing millions to become broadcasters in their own right. Today’s communications landscape has given individuals a power to exercise freedom of speech that the Framers could hardly have imagined.