The traditional view of communications as segregated services – phone lines, television, and radio – is coming to an end, as all of them move to the Internet. Online streaming is replacing cable and broadcast TV while radio has been outpaced by developments in web and mobile applications.
While the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has levied burdensome regulation on traditional modes of communications, part of the reason the Internet has thrived is because the FCC has had no regulatory authority over it. This has prompted the FCC to attempt to invent new regulatory powers to restrict innovation in tech, telecom and web industries – enterprises which made up almost half of U.S. non-structure investment in 2008. ATR’s affiliate Digital Liberty works exclusively on preventing onerous government regulation of the internet and advocates for free market solutions to questions raised by advancements in technology and the Internet.