Does "Open Access" Lead to More or Less Consumption of Broadband?

Samuel Clemens famously quipped that there are "dies, damned lies and statistics." Something like that seems to be at the heart of conflicting analyses of the impact of widespread open access requirements on consumer buying of broadband access services.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society suggests robust open access regulation increases consumer buying of broadband while analysts at the Phoenix Center says the opposite is true.

The interpretation matters. Good public policy requires decisions that are based on facts, as difficult as it may be to determine precisely what the "facts" are. The wrong "fact base" will lead to policies that could harm the intended public policy goal.

http://www.fcc.gov/stage/pdf/Berkman_Center_Broadband_Study_13Oct09.pdf

http://www.phoenix-center.org/perspectives/Perspective09-05Final.pdf