Internet Governance

Mmmm perhaps looking for loosers and winners is not the best choice. Rather it seems to me that it is time for some forward looking approach to envision a new form of government intervention: lighter, democratic, inclusive, transparent and accountable. Try reading this article (it is in Spanish though and under page 5).

Mobile Future

To make this happen a deep reform is needed in spectrum allocation mechanisms. See Werbach, Noam and Coase. There is a strong debate questionning traditional means to allocate spectrum. Coase did in fact solve the problem of pricing spectrum through competitive auctions (tragedy of the commons). However, technology has evolved and what may have characterized the spectrum: "scarcity", may no longer be the case.

There are many issues surrounding this discussion, but I will say that 2 main elements should be deeply analysed. The first one is "flexibility". When a user is granted spectrum frequencies, those are subject to specific services, and again technology may be capable of making those frequencies availabe for providing many wireless services different from those stated in the license. The second one is "exclusive property rights". Granting spectrum licenses to a particular firm gives such a company the exclusive right to exploit the frequencies in question, but what if technology provides for a more efficient use of those frequencies? what if those frequencies are under-exploited? This may lead to the "tragedy of the anticommons".

If you are interested in this debate follow this link here. If you speak spanish try reading this number of REGULATEL's publication.

Fair Use

This gives "food for thought" on how intellectual property rights should evolve to allow innovation. Other questions arise: How to disseminate knowledge using ICTs? Should legal and regulatory frameworks change to foster innovative means to make information available to all?

Net Neutrality

Governments have been cautious in regulating the Internet. The network has flourished without intervention (or promotion). Nevertheless, given that broadband providers may block or prioritize Internet traffic, regulators should analyze whether some kind of intervention is adequate to preserve the end to end principle of the Internet. At this point it seems as a good option to foster broadband access competition and evaluate whether this measure is sufficient to eliminate carriers incentives to block or prioritize content in the web.