Wireless networks allow users to access telecommunications and the Internet while on the move. The wireless devices operate on the electromagnetic spectrum, which is a finite resource. The allocation and assignment of spectrum, particularly given the burgeoning demand for wireless access to the Internet, poses a unique set of policy decisions for regulators worldwide.
"If this merger is not anticompetitive, even with the remedies agreed to, it is hard to know what is." — Eleanor Fox, Professor of Law, New York University
"Making capacity available in real time at market prices limits hoarding and encourages innovation. Unleashing our brilliant start-up ecosystem through such market mechanisms, along with opportunities for unlicensed access to wireless capacity, is America’s best hope to beat China in 5G." — Kevin Werbach, Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, University of Pennsylvania
"We’ve entered an age in which people are constantly sharing lots of information about themselves with Google or with AT&T or with their internet service provider. All of the sudden the fact that that information is being shared does not mean that the government can get that information without a search warrant." — Lior Strahilevitz, Professor of Law, University of Chicago
"Net neutrality protections are absolutely consistent with a free market framework. They are really a way to protect all these free markets that arose from and depend on the internet." — Barbara van Schewick, Professor of Law, Stanford University
"T-Mobile’s Binge On is aptly named — it feels good in the short-term but harms consumers in the long run. The program limits user choice, distorts competition, stifles innovation, and harms free speech on the Internet. If more ISPs offer similar programs, these harms will only grow worse." — Barbara van Schewick, Professor of Law, Stanford University
"Apple has a lot of experience in squeezing companies that thought they were the ones squeezing everyone else." — James Grimmelmann, Professor of Law, University of Maryland
"It won’t be too long before we look back on this era and think it’s nuts." — Jonathan Zittrain, Professor of Law, Harvard University
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TAP Academics
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TAP Blog
In an op-ed article for the Los Angeles Times, Woodrow Hartzog, Professor of Law and Computer Science at Northeastern University, shares his insights into Google and Apple’s contact tracing project, and he discusses the “three concerns to keep in mind about relying on technology to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis.”
May 26, 2020
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TPRC48: Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy
February 19, 2021, Washington, DC
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Fact Sheets
Wireless or “mobile” devices send information one-to-one (like mobile phones), one-to-many (like AM or FM radio), or many-to-many (like Wi-Fi Internet access). Wireless devices send and receive signals along the electromagnetic spectrum in the form of waves similar to visible light or sound.
Featured Article
This paper looks at how regulators can support more competition between different wireless services.
January 31, 2011
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