NTCA’s Powell: “Competition, Competition, Competition” has come to mean “Regulation, Regulation, Regulation”

The companies gathered here are in a transformative period that presents significant challenges as well as enormous opportunities. There are many currents of change shaping the contours of this dizzying period including ownership consolidation, competition, content and technology. We find ourselves the target of a relentless regulatory assault. The [Federal Communications Commission’s] governing mantra has been “competition, competition, competition.” From where we sit, that incantation has come to mean one thing, “regulation, regulation, regulation.”

The policy blows we are weathering are not modest regulatory corrections. They have been thundering, tectonic shifts that have crumbled decades of settled law and policy. What has been so distressing is that much of this regulatory ordinance has been launched without provocation. We increasingly are saddled with heavy rules without any compelling evidence of harm to consumers or competitors. Other times we find our property being confiscated and passed off to new competitors to give them a leg up, despite healthy and robust markets. This is the case with the current proposal to unbundle valuable content and hand it to companies who do not have to pay for it, respect the intellectual property rights of it or abide by the same regulatory requirements to protect consumers. Instead of unlocking the box, this proposal has unlocked fierce opposition from all quarters, from distributors, content providers, civil rights groups, labor unions and over 150 members of Congress. And, as we learned recently with the latest proposal to completely throw out decades of policies on business services, even when we are the new competitive entrants, we are marked for rate regulation. What I believe is most troublesome is an emerging government view that the communications market is bifurcated and should be regulated differently. Internet companies are nurtured and allowed to roam free, but network providers are disparagingly labeled “gatekeepers” that should be shackled. The implications of this worldview go far beyond how it affects one industry—we are resilient and will find a way to weather these changes. Rather, I believe this jaundiced view will prove detrimental to America’s ambitions in the Information Age. Networks must continue to innovate, experiment and thrive in order to fuel the Internet growth we all want to see. It is a mistake to view network providers as an impediment to that growth, rather than a valued ingredient of it.

[Powell is the President and CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association]