Be sure to check out our interview with Link Hoewing, Assistant Vice President for Internet and Technology Issues at Verizon. Link participated in a recent ITIF panel that focused on areas of collaboration in the Net neutrality debate. In his interview with NextGenWeb, Mr. Hoewing talks about why and how the broadband market is working for consumers, what we can take away from the substantive comments submitted during the FCC’s open Internet proceeding and finally talks about Verizon’s joint filing with Google, including the idea of Technical Advisory Group – or TAG. Be sure to check that out and much more in the dialogue below.

PROGRAM NOTE: Verizon’s Kathy Brown will be a panelist at tomorrow’s joint event hosted by Silicon Flatirons, Public Knowledge and ITIF (live streamed on NextGenWeb) and will also be discussing some of these issues.

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On March 3, the Federalist Society hosted an event titled, “The FCC’s Authority to Promulgate Internet Traffic Rules.” Click below to watch full archived footage of the event.

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While minority adoption was the big issue yesterday as it relates to our broadband priorities, Net neutrality took center stage today at an event sponsored by the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law titled “Implementing the National Broadband Plan: Perspective from Government, Industry and Consumers.”

The lunch session featured a discussion between Adam Thierer, President of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, and Ben Scott, Policy Director at Free Press, both leading (and effective) voices in the debate over whether or not the government should regulate the Internet. Neither one took long to get into the crux of their arguments. Thierer effectively broke down what he described as the “Five Cases Against Net Neutrality,” that included legal, economic, engineering, practical, and philosophical arguments.

To see Thierer describe these five cases in more detail, click on his interview with NextGenWeb following the debate.

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Click below to watch full archived footage.

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Mark A. Jamison, Director of the Unviersity of Florida’s Public Utility Research Center, and Janice Hauge, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics at the University of North Texas collaborated on an opinion piece in today’s South Florida Times to paint the picture of a one-dimensional network. They point out the harm to innovation and consumers that such regulations could in fact create.

The authors use the highway analogy, pointing out how much value today’s transportation system would offer without options like high occupancy vehicle lanes, car-only lanes, and toll road alternatives.  It’s these types of competitive choices that drive innovation and confer increased options for consumers, on roads and online:

“Today’s successful Internet sites face greater competition if we move beyond net neutrality principles. That probably explains why they are net neutrality’s strongest advocates. But moving beyond a dumb network is better for customers, sites that find new opportunities and networks.

It should be no surprise that dumb isn’t better. In an innovation-driven economy, restrictions don’t make us better. They hold us back.”

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President Obama is facing a number of serious challenges as his second year in office gets underway. A struggling economy, job losses, a growing number of foreclosures … the list goes on. As he often does, the president took to the Internet as a means to converse with the American people on these important topics. Less than a week after his State of the Union, he gave a live interview on YouTube.

The first question caught the attention of former Clinton Administration economist, Ev Ehrlich, a good friend to NextGenWeb.

Find out here.

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Today, policymakers, their staff, industry groups, nonprofit organizations, and other stakeholders are gathering for the 6th Annual State of the Net conference, presented by the Congressional Internet Caucus. However, many also gathered yesterday for the pre-conference and technology expo. The pre-conference focused on two very important technology policy issues, broadband adoption and net neutrality, following introductory remarks by FCC Commissioners Copps & Baker.

Panelists discussed the biggest challenges to broadband adoption along with proposed solutions to address them. Many expressed concern for minorities, seniors, and those with disabilities but are hopeful that with better social policies that empower individuals, we can help those with access to broadband choose to adopt. When asked what she would recommend that the FCC include in the National Broadband Plan, Nicol Turner-Lee of the Joint CenterJoint Center Media & Technology Institute urged for paying attention to low hanging fruit (like repurposing existing service initiatives towards technology) and accelerating adoption overall.

The second panel was on the topic of network neutrality and did not draw quite as much consensus among the speakers. Hal Singer of Empiris LLC argued strongly against regulation since we have not met economic standard for government intervention. More from Singer is available in the video interview below. Professor Christopher Yoo mentioned several new approaches to networking that are being explored by engineers and believes that we should not jump towards regulation in the face of ambiguity so that we don’t lose possibilities of experimentation.

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Yesterday, Capitol Hill was the location of a lively discussion on the merits of the FCC’s proposal to regulate broadband networks in order to “preserve” the open Internet Americans already enjoy in the absence of significant government intervention.

While the debate continues across the country, the American Consumer Institute has compiled a collection of essays that explore the various negative consequences regulations would bring to this essential modern resource. These consequences range from diminished broadband investment to harmful results for consumers.

At the event, Hal Singer of Empiris compared “Net neutrality” regulations to the government mandating a one-size-fits-all approach to the airline industry, postal service or even your gym membership. Singer explained how each case led to higher prices and fewer choices for consumers.

Perhaps the most compelling answer was the one not given: During the audience Q&A, someone asked, “what market failure does Net neutrality purport to solve?” Across the board, the answer was none.

You can watch complete archived footage of the event, as well as an interview with Empiris’ Hal Singer and ACI’s Joseph Fuhr, below.

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NextGenWeb recently interviewed Dr. William Lehr, an economist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). We discussed the federal government’s mandate to produce a national broadband strategy next year and also broached the issue of Net neutrality. Dr. Lehr shared his views on the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and also the effects additional regulations would have on economic growth, investment and a provider’s ability to appropriately manage their networks. We discussed this and more with Dr. Lehr – you can listen to this podcast by clicking here.

Also today Dr. Lehr released a study commissioned by Broadband for America entitled “Mobile Broadband and Implications for Broadband Competition and Adoption” which concludes that the impact of mobile broadband is pro-competitive.

Key conclusions of the study include:

• Mobile services in the U.S. are currently “robustly competitive.”
• “The overall impact of mobile broadband will be strongly pro-competitive.”
• Mobile and fixed broadband services to remain “distinct and complementary services, rather than as close service substitutes in most user/usage contexts.”
• By “enabling the convergence of mobile communication services and the broadband Internet, mobile broadband can enable the creation of markets for wholly new services (e.g., mobile health, location-aware multimedia, and machine-to-machine communications), as well as enhancing the value of existing broadband services by allowing them to go mobile.”
• “The rapid pace of progress in broadband-related investment in infrastructure, services, content, and applications; and innovation all along the value chain (from services to content to applications to end-user devices) should give us pause before we consider new regulatory obligations on broadband providers.”

You can view the entire study below.

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A research study ordered by the FCC has received a scathing appraisal by Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford. The study, prepared by Harvard’s Berkman Center for the Internet and Society, was commissioned by the FCC as an independent expert review of broadband deployment and usage throughout the world.

Dr. Ford could not hide his incredulity that the analysis used to support the study’s heavily pro-regulation conclusion is “embarrassingly bad.” From overlooking the role of government subsidies in other countries to virtually ignoring the primary role of private investment in U.S. broadband deployment, the study appears to take a highly selective view of the global broadband landscape today. This has led many to question the reliability of the analysis in crafting a successful National Broadband Plan.

Hopefully, we all support the Commission’s goal of ‘data-driven’ policymaking. We also agree that the Commission should be mindful of lessons learned by other countries. There’s no question the FCC will closely review the Berkman Center study. Here’s hoping they also read this essential companion piece that puts its findings in perspective.

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