The FCC and the Unregulation of the Internet

Jason Oxman.  

OSP Working Paper 31 (July 1999) argues that, although the FCC has a role to play in regulating the underlying communications services over which the unregulated Internet travels, it should allow the marketplace to pick the winners and losers among new services.  Toward that end, Oxman recommends that the FCC (a) should not automatically impose legacy regulations on new technologies, (b) should begin to deregulate the old instead of regulating the new as Internet-based services replace traditional legacy services, and (c) should maintain a watchful eye to ensure that anticompetitive behavior does not develop and be careful that any regulatory responses are the minimum necessary and outweigh the costs of regulation.