Price Regulation Is Not the Answer for Broadband

Christopher Ali, the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications at Penn State University, recently called for consideration of rate regulation for broadband providers. His main argument is that some households still have difficulty paying their Internet bill. That may be true for some in the short term. However, the best way to ensure lower prices and greater innovation for most consumers over the long term remains continued promotion of increased competition with market-determined prices. There is considerable evidence showing a steady pattern of increasingly faster speeds and lower prices per megabyte per second over the last few years. In other words, on average, consumers are paying less for more broadband capacity. Rate regulation almost certainly would reverse this.