The FCC and the Unregulation of the Internet

Citation
Federal Communications Commission, The FCC and the Unregulation of the Internet (OPP Working Paper No. 31) (July 1999) (full-text).

Overview
Fundamental lessons learned from the Federal Communications Commission's thirty year deregulatory approach towards data networks include:


 * Do not automatically impose legacy regulations on new technologies
 * When Internet-based services replace traditional legacy services, begin to deregulate the old instead of regulate the new; and
 * Maintain a watchful eye to ensure that anticompetitive behavior does not develop, do not regulate based on the perception of potential future bottlenecks, and be careful that any regulatory responses are the minimum necessary and outweigh the costs of regulation.