Americans Need Reliable FCC Commitments, and So Does Starlink

Imagine committing billions of dollars to build a broadband network based in part on government promises of financial support. The possibilities excite your potential customers—rural Americans that lack broadband. But then, without warning, the government fails to follow its own rules and puts the promised support at risk. What would you do? According to economists [...]

Big Tech Should Pay Broadband Providers, Not Governments

Prominent regulators in the European Union and US contend that Big Tech is not paying enough for using broadband networks. Their preferred remedy is for governments to collect money from Big Tech and then disperse it to broadband providers, presumably to subsidize serving the poor and high-cost rural areas. This is an idea whose time [...]

Biden Administration’s Actions Needlessly Harm Critical US Chip Company

The Biden administration recognizes that semiconductors are critical technologies in which US leadership is an important national strategy. This raises the question of why the administration has put Nvidia—a US company and one of the world’s largest chip developers—in such a tough position by limiting its growth opportunities and then limiting its existing markets. It [...]

US Senators Want the US to Imitate Europe’s Tech Policies

Generally, people who want to achieve excellence try to learn from the best: Ambitious college students seek out successful mentors. Up-and-coming football coaches study Alabama’s Nick Saban. Aspiring business leaders study the greatest CEOs, such as those researched by Jim Collins in Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t (HarperBusiness, [...]

Senators May Eradicate Local Journalism

Rumor has it that the Senate Judiciary Committee is ready to mark up Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA). The News/Media Alliance expects the law to force tech companies to give local news publishers billions of dollars. Klobuchar and her cosponsors say the legislation would save these publishers from an existential [...]