Digital crossroads : telecommunications law and policy in the internet age

A thoroughly updated, comprehensive, and accessible guide to U.S. telecommunications law and policy, covering recent developments including mobile broadband issues, spectrum policy, and net neutrality.

In Digital Crossroads , two experts on telecommunications policy offer a comprehensive and accessible analysis of the regulation of competition in the U.S. telecommunications industry. The first edition of Digital Crossroads (MIT Press, 2005) became an essential and uniquely readable guide for policymakers, lawyers, scholars, and students in a fast-moving and complex policy field. In this second edition, the authors have revised every section of every chapter to reflect the evolution in industry structure, technology, and regulatory strategy since 2005.

The book features entirely new discussions of such topics as the explosive development of the mobile broadband ecosystem; incentive auctions and other recent spectrum policy initiatives; the FCC's net neutrality rules; the National Broadband Plan; the declining relevance of the traditional public switched telephone network; and the policy response to online video services and their potential to transform the way Americans watch television. Like its predecessor, this new edition of Digital Crossroads not only helps nonspecialists climb this field's formidable learning curve, but also makes substantive contributions to ongoing policy debates.

Author Notes

Jonathan E. Nuechterlein is chair of the telecommunications practice at the international law firm of Wilmer Hale. He served as Deputy General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission from 2000 to 2001 and as Assistant to the Solicitor General from 1996 to 2000. Philip J. Weiser is Dean of the Law School, Thompson Professor of Law and Telecommunications, and Founder and Executive Director of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Boulder, from 2009 to 2010, he was Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and from 2010 to 2011, he was Senior Adviser on Technology and Innovation at the National Economic Council in the White House under President Obama. Both authors worked as law clerks on the U.S. Supreme Court: Nuechterlein for Justice Souter, and Weiser for Justices White and Ginsburg.

Reviews 1

Choice Review

For anyone teaching or just interested in the background and complexities of telecommunications policy, this revised edition (1st ed., CH, Sep'05, 43-0440) is close to invaluable. Nuechterlein (chair, telecommunications practice, WilmerHale law firm) and Weiser (dean of the Law School, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) address the wide range of issues relevant to this sector, including the pertinent fundamentals in law, engineering, history, politics, and economics. Among the issues covered are competition among wireline providers (telephone versus cable), and spectrum management--including the current thorny issue of how to induce television broadcasters to cede some airwaves to mobile broadband providers. Separate chapters are also devoted to net neutrality, perhaps the hottest recent hot potato; intercarrier compensation; and universal funding. Distinctive features of this book are sensitivity to nuance and scrupulous non-advocacy. Consequently, it is ideal as a professional reference and for courses in media, the Internet, or telecommunications policy. The volume's only drawback is the widespread but necessary use of the phrase "at press time," since law, regulation, and engineering do not stand still. The only improvement one could wish for is annual supplements. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. T. Brennan University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Preface to the Second Edition	p. xv
Preface to the First Edition	p. xvii
1 The Big Picture	p. 1
I Economic Principles	p. 3
A Network effects and interconnection	p. 3
B Economies of scale and density	p. 8
C Information platforms, monopoly leveraging, and net neutrality	p. 14
II Technological Convergence and Statutory Obsolescence	p. 17
2 Competition Policy in Wireline Telecommunications	p. 23
I A Primer on Wireline Technology	p. 23
A Transmission pipes: loops and transport	p. 25
B Switches	p. 28
Circuit switching	p. 28
Packet switching	p. 30
II Traditional Telephone Rate Regulation	p. 32
A The basics of price regulation	p. 32
The regulatory compact, rate-of-return regulation, and price caps	p. 33
Dual jurisdiction and access charges	p. 35
Tariffs	p. 37
B Introduction to universal service policies	p. 38
III Wireline Competition Policy Before 1996	p. 40
A Telecommunications equipment manufacturing	p. 42
B Long-distance competition and the AT&T consent decree	p. 44
C The rise of competitive access providers	p. 48
D The first steps toward local exchange competition	p. 50
IV Wireline Competition Under the 1996 Act	p. 51
A The 1996 Act's main objectives	p. 51
B The nuts and bolts of the 1996 Act	p. 54
A taxonomy of carriers and services	p. 54
Interconnection and collocation rights	p. 57
Network elements and leasing rights	p. 58
Procedures for implementing the local competition provisions	p. 60
C The rise and fall of UNE-P	p. 62
The stakes of UNE-P	p. 62
The FCC, the "impairment" standard, and the courts	p. 63
The collapse of the consumer long-distance carriers	p. 66
D Wireline broadband facilities and the 1996 Act	p. 68
Line sharing	p. 69
Next generation networks	p. 71
V The Twilight of Monopoly-Era Regulation	p. 74
A Forbearance from monopoly-era regulation in the mass market	p. 75
B The partial deregulation of special-access services	p. 76
3 The Spectrum	p. 83
I Overview	p. 85
II The Nuts and Bolts of Spectrum Allocation and Assignment	p. 89
A Allocation	p. 90
B Assignment: from comparative hearings to auctions	p. 92
III Liberating the Airwaves	p. 96
A Beyond command and control	p. 96
B Reclaiming spectrum for mobile broadband	p. 99
Reclaiming government-held spectrum and options for spectrum sharing	p. 100
Reclaiming spectrum from broadcasters	p. 102
C Controversy in the transition	p. 106
The 2004 Nextel spectrum-relocation controversy	p. 107
Mobile satellite service controversies: Light Squared and DISH	p. 108
Avoiding the sunk cost fallacy in the assignment of spectrum rights	p. 111
D Commons: Einstein's cat in the age of the mouse	p. 112
IV The Future of Interference Policy	p. 117
4 Mobile Wireless Services	p. 127
I The Basics of Cellular Technology	p. 128
II The Regulatory Landscape	p. 133
A A brief history of mobile wireless regulation	p. 133
B The general deregulation of wireless telephony	p. 137
III Competition Policy for the Wireless Broadband Ecosystem	p. 142
A Roaming	p. 144
B Interoperability	p. 146
C Number portability	p. 152
D Market concentration and the AT&T/T-Mobile merger controversy	p. 154
5 A Primer on Internet Technology	p. 159
I The Basics	p. 159
A From analog to digital	p. 159
B Modularity and layering	p. 162
C The logic of the Internet	p. 165
D Killer apps: email and the Web	p. 170
E VoIP	p. 173
II The Internet's Physical Infrastructure	p. 175
A Beginnings	p. 175
B The Internet's Constituent IP Networks	p. 178
Access networks/ISPs	p. 178
Backbone networks and the basics of peering and transit	p. 180
CDNs and the disintermediation of Internet backbone networks	p. 184
6 Net Neutrality and the Regulation of Broadband Internet Access	p. 187
I The Historical Origins of the Net Neutrality Movement	p. 188
A The Computer Inquiries	p. 188
B The "open-access" debate	p. 192
II The Net Neutrality Debate	p. 196
A The anti-blocking rule and "reasonable network management"	p. 198
The Madison River and Comcast-BitTorrent controversies	p. 198
The Open Internet Order and the differential treatment of fixed and mobile broadband platforms	p. 200
The concept of "reasonable network management"	p. 201
"Application agnosticism" and usage-sensitive pricing	p. 203
B Restrictions on favored treatment of particular content	p. 205
Background	p. 205
The FCC's "nondiscrimination" rule	p. 209
The "specialized services" exception, IP video, and data tiers	p. 211
Nondiscrimination and paid peering	p. 214
C The economic elements of the net neutrality debate	p. 216
Framing the debate	p. 217
Market power and residential broadband competition	p. 220
Vertical integration and the ICE principle	p. 221
Concerns about "manufactured scarcity"	p. 224
Weighing the costs and benefits of intervention	p. 226
III Title I, Title II, and the Limits of FCC Power	p. 230
A Overview of Title I and the FCC's "ancillary authority"	p. 230
B The Comcast decision and the "third way" proposal	p. 235
C Denouement and litigation	p. 238
7 Interconnection and Intercarrier Compensation	p. 243
I The Historical Crazy Quilt of Intercarrier Compensation Schemes	p. 244
A Introduction to PSTN interconnection rules and intercarrier compensation	p. 244
B Access charge arbitrage scandals-and their origin in regulatory artificiality	p. 248
C The ISP reciprocal compensation controversy	p. 252
D Intercarrier compensation and VoIP	p. 255
E Tariffs, CLEC access charges, and "traffic pumping"	p. 257
F Intercarrier compensation for mobile and tandem transit providers	p. 260
II The Rise of Bill-and-Keep as the Cornerstone of Intercarrier Compensation Reform	p. 263
A The economic challenges of a calling-network-pays regime	p. 265
B The bill-and-keep alternative	p. 268
III The USF-ICC Reform Order and the 1996 Act	p. 274
A Overview of the Order	p. 274
B Legal rationales and litigation	p. 275
The FCC's disputed jurisdiction	p. 275
The disputed legal basis for bill-and-keep	p. 277
IV After the PSTN Sunset: Interconnection Policy in an All-IP World	p. 279
A VoIP-to-VoIP interconnection	p. 280
Telephone numbers in an all-IP world	p. 281
Indirect interconnection and QoS	p. 284
B Paid-peering disputes involving "eyeball" ISPs and CDNs	p. 287
C Concerns about Internet fragmentation	p. 290
8 Universal Service in the Age of Broadband	p. 295
I Introduction to the Political Dynamics of Universal Service	p. 297
II Federal USF Disbursement Mechanisms	p. 301
A The nuts and bolts of the High Cost Fund (circa 2011)	p. 301
B Wireless ETCs and the rise and fall of the identical-support rule	p. 304
C The Connect America Fund	p. 307
III Federal USF Contribution Mechanisms	p. 314
A The traditional revenue-based assessment regime	p. 315
B Prospects for contribution reform	p. 321
9 Competition in the Delivery of Video Programming	p. 327
I The Basics of the Video-Distribution Marketplace	p. 329
A Introduction to video programmers and distributors	p. 329
B Cable rate deregulation and the "a la carte" debate	p. 333
II Regulation of Relationships among Video-Distribution Platforms	p. 335
A Compulsory copyright licenses and retransmission consent	p. 335
B Must carry	p. 339
C Satellite retransmission of broadcast signals	p. 340
D The program-access rules	p. 343
E Online video distributors	p. 347
OVDs, copyright, and the definition of "MVPDs"	p. 347
OVDs and the Comcast-NBC "Universal merger conditions	p. 349
III Efforts to Protect Programming Competition and Diversity through Vertical Regulation of Broadcast Networks and MVPDs	p. 352
A Vertical integration concerns and-the finsyn case study	p. 352
B Cable operators, horizontal ownership restrictions, and the program-carriage rules	p. 355
Cable ownership restrictions	p. 355
The program-carriage rules	p. 358
IV Restrictions on Ownership of Television Broadcast Stations	p. 359
10 The Future of Telecommunications Competition Policy	p. 365
I First Principles of Institutional Reform	p. 367
II Judging Congress	p. 369
III The Antitrust Alternative	p. 371
IV The FCC in Transition	p. 376
A Expertise	p. 376
B Determinacy	p. 377
Relations with reviewing courts	p. 378
Relations with the states	p. 379
Relations with coordinate merger-review authorities	p. 380
C Transparency	p. 383
D Neutrality	p. 385
E Humility	p. 386
Notes	p. 389
Index	p. 489

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