IIA: EU-Style Title II Is Wrong Model

By John Eggerton
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

If the U.S. adopts European Union-style Title II-based net-neutrality regulations, it will hurt investment in next-generation broadband networks.

That is according to a paper released Thursday (Feb. 12) by the Internet Innovation Alliance, whose members include broadband network operators/builders/suppliers AT&T, Alcatel-Lucent and Corning.

The paper argues that fixed broadband operators in the U.S., under lighter-touch regulation, have invested four times more capital in networks compared with their European counterparts under the EU Title II approach adopted in 2002, and mobile operators twice as much. And that investment came while EU operators were generally producing more revenue than their U.S. counterparts, according to the paper. 

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John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.