Network neutrality is choking innovation

[Commentary] AT&T is now saying that it has been delaying new services because of the Federal Communications Commission’s regulatory uncertainty.

What has AT&T been delaying? Apparently several services, but one in particular is similar to T-Mobile’s new Binge On video streaming program. Binge On provides customers with unlimited access to 24 video services, such as Netflix. AT&T’s Bob Quinn said AT&T didn’t offer this as early as T-Mobile did because AT&T wasn’t sure how the FCC would respond. There is an unfortunate irony in this: FCC staff objected to AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile in 2011 in part because the staff believed that AT&T should take after T-Mobile and be more entrepreneurial. Now the FCC’s own regulation may be a major obstacle to AT&T being more innovative. Does an admission by an AT&T executive prove that the FCC’s rules are delaying innovation? Of course not. We should always be cautious with what we read into executive statements that are of strategic importance to their companies. But there is precedence for what Quinn said being true.

[Mark Jamison is the director and Gunter Professor of the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida]