Professor Yochai Benkler has posted a response to some of the criticism of the FCC-commissioned Berkman study on broadband.
Most interesting to me is the final section that relates to how to regulate the market, comparing inter-modal competition (Cable vs. Phone vs. Satelite vs. power line, etc) to “open access” markets (Where the mode is not vertically integrated with all services). With my submissions to the CRTC suggesting a regulated separation of mode from services, I'm clearly in the "open access" camp.
What we see is that telco incumbents and cable companies, power companies, and open access entrants in five different countries are all tightly clustered in one high-performing corner. These are countries with robust open access policies. On the bottom left hand corner are the companies that offer low speeds for high prices. These companies are not tightly clustered, and they don't seem to be responding to any particular competitor, but are rather setting prices with much less discipline to push them to a “market price.” Almost all the companies in that bottom third corner are in the two major “inter-modal competition” markets—the United States and Canada.
