Broadband News -- Jerry Ellig, "Costs and Consequences of Federal Telecommunications and Broadband Regulations," Mercatus Center Working Paper, February 2005 (mercatus.org)
Americans love their high-tech communications gadgets and have benefited from falling prices in broadband Internet and cell phone service. But are they still paying too much? Yes, says Mercatus Center fellow Jerry Ellig. The culprit, however, is not monopolistic service providers, but costly government regulation.
Examining the effects of economic regulation on telecommunications service in the U.S., Ellig finds that government has cost consumers up to $105 billion annually in higher prices and foregone services. The most harmful of all the federal communications regulations--management of the communications spectrum--costs consumers $77 billion a year.
Ellig's study found only a single telecommunications program--"Enhanced 911" service--that demonstrates clear public benefit. All other regulations created more economic harm than good in the long run. Some regulations did show some benefit--which could have been achieved more effectively through other, non-regulatory means.
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