Aspen Institute Releases Report on Policy Options for Balancing Investment and Competition in Telecommunications

3/24/2003

From: Heather A. Cooper of The Aspen Institute, 202-736-3848

WASHINGTON, March 24 -- The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program (C&S) released a report today on the future of communications regulatory paradigms in light of potential new models for spectrum policy, the changing telecommunications market environment, and regulatory goals. Entitled Balancing Policy Options in a Turbulent Telecommunications Market, the report suggests four models of spectrum management, including government allocation, private spectrum rights, unlicensed commons, and a hybrid system of dynamic spectrum access. It places these models in the context of broader changes in the telecommunications marketplace and federal regulation, with recommendations for communications policymakers in the United States.

"This report advances the conventional wisdom in communications policymaking in this country, first by separating and defining specific models of spectrum management, and second by sorting out the difficult issues of intra- and inter-platform competition in telecommunications," said Charles M. Firestone, executive director of the Institute's Communications and Society Program. "It gives the lay person and the expert a good overview of current issues, and provides some new thinking in the field as well."

This report also addresses how changes in spectrum and other telecommunications policies, and new business realities, might affect current regulatory regimes for the telecommunications industries. The publication includes a provocative background paper on spectrum management by Dale Hatfield.

Authored by Robert M. Entman, Balancing Policy Options in a Turbulent Telecommunications Market is the 17th report of the Aspen Institute Conference on Telecommunications Policy. The report is available online at http://www.aspeninstitute.org/c&s/pdfs/entman2002.pdf or by contacting the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program at 202/736-5818 or at sunny@aspeninstitute.org. Earlier reports in the Conference on Telecommunications Policy series are also available at http://www.aspeninstitute.org/c&s.

The Communications and Society Program aims to design new models, options, initiatives, policy recommendations, and insights in areas where the use of communications technologies will have a significant impact on human interaction, organization, and governance. Through roundtable discussions, the promotion of research, and the dissemination of conference materials, C&S draws the focus of both experts and the public at large, on local, national and global levels, to the implications of communications and information technologies on democratic institutions, individual behavior, instruments of commerce, and community life. Recent topics addressed by C&S have centered on the issues of Internet policy, electronic commerce, information literacy, digital broadcasting, international and domestic telecommunications regulation, journalism, the role of the media in democratic society, and the impact of new communications technologies on democratic institutions and practices.

The Aspen Institute is an international non-profit organization dedicated to informed dialogue and inquiry on issues of global concern. Founded in 1950, it has pursued its mission of fostering enlightened leadership through seminars, policy studies and fellowship programs. The Institute is headquartered in Washington, DC, and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Its international network includes partner Aspen Institutes in Berlin, Rome, Lyon and Tokyo, and leadership programs in Africa.