Realizing the digital future means letting go of the past

[Commentary] Apparently some members of Congress think about more than re-election. House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) have launched a multi-year effort to reform the Communications Act of 1934.

Already their effort has been lauded by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, who deemed the effort warranted and necessary. It borders on the trite to say it, but we live an age of convergence, where information, communication, and technology have merged. Service providers no longer fit the silos. To a large degree, innovation in broadband networks have enabled an improvement and diversification of services. As consumers we have come to expect the ability to access digital services anywhere and anytime on secure networks at a good price. And we have come to this point not because of regulation but in spite of it. Competition experts have long maintained that if antitrust law is applied correctly, there is no need for industrial regulation and subsequent tax burdens. In the Netherlands and Denmark, government sees the key to consumer protection through increased competition and, if necessary, a consumer authority that has the power to prosecute when there is evidence of abuse of market position and consumer harm. A modern Communications Act should implement a similar standard where regulatory actions are taken and only in cases of demonstrable harm to consumers or competition. [Layton is a doctorate fellow in the Center for Communication, Media and Information Studies at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, Denmark]