Publications

Of all the technological inventions over the last two centuries, none seems to have penetrated American households as profoundly as the wireless telephone. It took more than 90 years for landline service to reach 100 million consumers. It took over 21 years for 100 million consumers to buy a color television. But in less than 17 years wireless phones had reached 100 million consumers.

Video franchises are the revenue sharing agreements that cable TV companies sign with local governments in return for the exclusive right to sell video services to customers. Because local and municipal governments own so much of the cable TV and telephone infrastructure, TV and telephone companies entered into franchise agreements with those local governments for the right to use those lines. The TV/Telephone company would give a portion of their profits to the government for the “exclusive” usage rights.

Washington Policy Center consistently promotes a simple principle - competition is good for consumers. In our free economy competition is what drives excellence, innovation and, more importantly, low prices, meaning a better life for all the citizens of our state. Nothing is more motivating to business people than the daily knowledge that their customers will walk the minute they are not satisfied with either the price or the quality of the service being offered. That is why it is so important for government officials not only to refrain from blocking consumers' voluntary choices, but to actively promote competition when advances in technology make new options available.

We live in a world where leaps in technology happen on a regular basis. The latest jump is new technology that lets telephone users make calls over the internet. Called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), the new service will allow a person to talk to anyone in the world for a fraction of the cost of a traditional long distance call.