Also of value was the last paper in this section, "The Benefits of Broadband and the Effect of Regulation" by Robert W. Crandall, Robert W. Hahn, and Timothy J. Tardiff. They summarize other's research on the benefits to the economy of broadband, and also provide a guided tour of much previous regulation and de-regulation in communications (including telephone, television, and cable), and much of the unintended consequences that were a result.
These papers were being written and revised after the dot-com bubble had burst, and many of them mention the roll call of bankruptcies that had already begun in the Internet and telecom field, although they do not anticipate the depth of the fall. The hot regulatory topics have changed, too. The two biggest issues in this field now in Washington are digital rights management and the media concentration rules, and two years from now it will be something completely different. That's why the most important part of this section is the big picture on regulation, rather than the details of what was the hot topic of 2001.
A minor quibble with the book — some, but not all, of the contributors are well known. The list of contributors is only a page long, and lists only names and affiliations. The combination of a broadband connection and Google meant that it wasn't hard to find the backgrounds, but it wouldn't have taken more than a couple of pages to include a paragraph each on the authors.
Overall, the book has value, but due to what it covers, the value depreciates rapidly. That is a byproduct of the topic, and not the fault of the authors.
(This review also appears in Business Economics, the journal of the National Association for Business Economics)
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Terrific Bruce, thanks! If any topic has seen the instant obsolescence of books, its high tech.
2 - TDavid
Resisted the urge to raise my hand when I read the passage about 128K ISDN. We had one of those, once upon a time and it was nearly four times the cost of what we're paying for DSL today that's many times over faster.
The truth is there a lot of available bandwith that isn't being utilyzed and the possibilities will be exciting when that higher bandwith is available to/in the majority of homes.
Currently there still isn't even 50% broadband penetration compared to modems and that's unfortunate.
3 - Bill Wallo
I'll be curious to read some of the stuff on "regulation" of broadband. Regulation can often stiffle creativity (because it tends to institutionalize the status quo).
4 - Bruce Kratofil
Bill --
The other side effect of regulation is the law of unintended consequences. Often, there are side effects that pop up, some good and some bad. Joseph Heller, in his novel "Good as Gold" states it as
"Nothing succeeds as planned"