Why Have a Telecommunications Law?: Anti-Discrimination Norms in Communications

Abstract:     
This paper presents telecommunications law with a challenge: how much of the present Telecommunication's Acts objectives might be accomplished with a focus on a central anti-discrimination rule? The one-rule model provides one answer. This rule should be (1) a general norm that is technologically neutral, (2) in the form of an ex ante rule with ex poste remedies, and (3) anchored on a model of consumers' rights. The form of the rule recommended here is hardly radical. It is, rather, something of a restatement of the best of telecommunications practice based on decades of telecommunications experience. It borrows from what, as best we can tell, has worked, while shunning the regimes with the greatest tendency toward corruption.

Keywords: telecommunications law, anti-discrimination, technology, network neutrality, common carriage, antitrust, localism, infrastructure, market entrant

JEL Classifications: L96

Accepted Paper Series