Economists have long recognized that technological innovation and enhanced communication increase productivity and reduce friction in economic activity. And never before has technology’s impact on economic growth been as evident as it is today.
At IPI, we focus on technology and communications policy not only because it’s critical to economic growth, but also because government’s inherent tendency to regulate prospectively poses an active threat to the economic gains and lifestyle enhancements made possible by technological innovation.
The communications and technology industries are among the country’s most competitive and the biggest capital investors in the U.S. economy, and are thus prime engines of economic growth and job creation. It is critical that public policy encourages continued innovation and investment in the tech sector, and that we don’t limit the innovation upside with counterproductive taxes and regulations.
Get Out of the Business of Regulating Copper Wires, Say FCC Critics at Internet Protocol Event
The FCC is not able to flexibly adapt to changed circumstances in the communications world, according to officials . In a January letter to the FCC, IPI chastised: “It borders on the absurd to require that companies like AT&T maintain two parallel networks, a forward looking one that is desired by consumers and businesses; but also an expensive legacy network that is necessary only to comply with outdated regulations.”
The Simple Joy of McDonald's Wi-Fi
Though a Wall Street Journal story implies Internet-deprived students are resorting to McDonald’s for access, affordable broadband is available even at Dollar Menu prices.
And the Games Begin
Blaming video games for the acts of evil people is just a way for policy makers to appear to be doing something. Ironically, it’s games played in DC, not in people’s homes, that are most harmful.
Comments to the FCC Urging Test Migrations from PSTN to IP-based Networks
IPI urges the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to do its part to speed the transition from the legacy PSTN to IP-based networks by allowing test migrations in specific geographic areas, and by reforming several other archaic regulations.
FCC Should Help Speed Transition from Circuit-Switched Networks to IP
In comments filed with the FCC, IPI experts urged the agency to help speed the transition from the legacy public switched telephone network (PSTN) to IP-based networks by reforming archaic regulations and especially through proposed test-case migrations onto IP networks.
In Technology Policy, Doing Less Means Getting More
In the midst of one of the worst economic downturns in history, the Internet economy is one of the few areas where investment in research, infrastructure, and facilities, and consumer spending on products and services, continues at a strong pace.
States Will Play a Big Role in Health IT
Health care is entering the telecommunications age, and that development has significant ramifications for the access, cost and quality of health care. States have not been involved yet, but they soon will be.
Innovation, Not Legislation, Is Reforming the Health Care System
The stuff of science fiction is now becoming medical reality as innovation, rather than legislation, improves the health care system.
ALEC Eyes IP Regulation Laws, Municipal Broadband Reservations for 2013 Priorities
ALEC's Communications and Technology Task Force is examining "uber trends" affecting the telecom world, big changes that won't be easy to "crystallize into model legislation," as the heavyweight organization has often done in the past, said IPI's Bartlett Cleland, Private Chair.
Santa Clause Workshop
Over the last few years regulators seem to have been handing out gifts to those they deem worthy even as they bestow lumps of coal and switches to others who have not caught their fancy, most recently in Kansas City, Kansas. Call it a regulatory Santa Clause workshop.
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