New America Policy Papers: 2003

Papers and other formal publications from our policy programs are available below. To jump to another year in the archives, please use the links at right.

Reforming Telecom Policy for the Big Broadband Era

  • By Reed Hundt, Former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
December 19, 2003

All new media, taught Marshall McLuhan, are destined to subsume and extend all old media, and to use the old media as their content, much like large fish filling their stomachs with small fish. The fish metaphor belongs to me, not McLuhan, since he was rarely so dull in his imagery.

The big fish of today is Big Broadband – access to the Web at 10 to 100 megabits per second for homes and 1 to 10 gigabits per second for businesses. The small fish are broadcast, DSL, cable modem, and voice.

Programs:

Radio Revolution

  • By Kevin Werbach, Founder, The Supernova Group
December 15, 2003

We stand at the threshold of a wireless paradigm shift. New technologies promise to replace scarcity with abundance, dumb terminals with smart radios able to adapt to their surroundings, and government defined licenses with flexible sharing of the airwaves. Early examples suggest that such novel approaches can provide affordable broadband connections to a wide range of users.

Programs:

Multicast Must-Carry for Broadcasters

  • By
  • J.H. Snider,
  • New America Foundation
December 1, 2003

The Federal Communications Commission will soon decide whether to grant local TV broadcasters enhanced “must-carry” rights on cable TV systems. Specifically, broadcasters seek to expand their current one-program must-carry right to a multi-program must-carry right, which they call “multicast” must-carry.

Programs:

Covering America

  • By
  • Michael Calabrese,
  • New America Foundation
December 1, 2003

Michael Calabrese has proposed a tax-credit based plan with the following key features:

Programs:

Financing Strategies for Learning and Asset Development

  • By
  • Ray Boshara,
  • Reid Cramer,
  • New America Foundation
October 1, 2003

Based on the assumption that lifelong learning is a form of asset accumulation, this paper discusses a range of financing strategies. The paper includes a summary of what has been learned about assets, both from research and demonstrations largely centered in the U.S. While the evidence strongly suggests that assets are worth accumulating for both economic and social reasons, this begs the question, how can the poor possibly accumulate assets? To answer this question, we closely examine the U.S.

Programs:

The American Family

October 1, 2003
Please see the attached PDF version of this document.
Programs:

The Misleading Way We Count the Poor

  • By
  • Reid Cramer,
  • New America Foundation
September 15, 2003

Each September the Census Bureau releases its official calculation of the national poverty rate, intended to reflect the extent of economic hardship in the United States. Despite advances in available data and methodological techniques, the mechanics of the official poverty measure have not been significantly altered for four decades. The once useful metric has, unfortunately, not worn well. Today the official poverty measure provides an incomplete and inaccurate representation of the poor.

Programs:

Interlicense Competition

  • By Michael Rothkopf, Professor, Rutgers Business School; Coleman Bazelon, Vice President, Analysis Group, Inc.
August 1, 2003

The right to use US radio frequency spectrum is extremely valuable. Unlike most property rights, licenses to use radio spectrum are granted for limited terms and carry significant restrictions on how the radio spectrum is used. Economic efficiency suggests that existing license rights should be expanded to give users the flexibility to redeploy spectrum to its most valuable use and to trade licenses or unused capacity on secondary markets. Distributing these expanded rights to use radio spectrum raises questions of both efficiency and equity.

Programs:

The Airwaves Explained

  • By Neil Carlson
August 1, 2003

For the complete document, please see the attached PDF version below.

Programs:

Citizen's Guide To The Airwaves

  • By
  • J.H. Snider,
  • New America Foundation
July 2, 2003

The Citizen's Guide to the Airwaves is the New America Foundation's attempt to educate the public about the tremendous value, government mismanagement, and impending giveaway of the nation's airwaves -- the most valuable natural resource of the information economy. The publications frame the spectrum debate in a language new to the policy world, using clear, graphic illustrations to depict the economic, social and political facets of spectrum policy.

Programs:
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