The FTC Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy workshop finished up on Wednesday, and the Commission should be congratulated for holding an informative event that on the whole stuck closely to the issues.

CDT staff counsel David Sohn had the opportunity to participate on the last panel of the day. Although in such a position it can be difficult to say anything that has not been said already at the workshop, David opened by emphasizing that the Internet has brought us not only economic benefits, but societal benefits as well, including extraordinary opportunities for free speech and democratic participation. Economics were much more the focus of the workshop, but it is important to always keep in mind all of the reasons why we value the Internet to such a great extent. David and the other panelists got into many other details about broadband access and Internet neutrality – the transcript and webcast are available at the FTC Web site under “What Framework Best Promotes Competition and Consumer Welfare/Academic and Policy Panel.”

Many workshop participants cited recent papers and reports to support the claims they were making. We jotted down most of the ones that were mentioned – Chuck Goldfarb’s recent CRS Report on broadband access, the Joe Farrell/Phil Weiser paper on anti-trust and regulation of the Internet, the FCC’s most recent broadband report, and Tim Wu’s new wireless paper – and added them to CDT’s Net Neutrality Reading Room.

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