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Harvard report - open access internet brings lower prices, higher speeds
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has already riled up the country's big ISPs in so many ways"network neutrality for wired and wireless networks, inquiries into wireless billing and competition"that he might want to have a staffer start tasting his coffee first. But a new report (PDF) commissioned by the FCC threatens to make all those other issues look petty by pointing out that mandating "open access" to broadband networks works really, really well as a way to boost speeds and lower costs.
If you thought ISPs hated the idea of network neutrality, imagine if Genachowski actually starts talking about forced line-sharing or "functional separation."
According to the 200+ page report, the idea of open access may be unpopular in the US, but a careful look at the data shows just how well it worked. "Contrary to perceptions in the United States, there is extensive evidence to support the position, adopted almost universally by other advanced economies, that open access policies, where undertaken with serious regulatory engagement, contributed to broadband penetration, capacity, and affordability in the first generation of broadband," it says.