Susan P Crawford, Columnist

Europe Prepares to Repeat U.S. Mistakes on Cable: Susan Crawford

July 22, 2013 at 3:50 PM UTC

Susan Crawford, the John A. Reilly visiting professor in intellectual property at Harvard Law School, is the author of "Captive Audience." Her book "The Responsive City," with co-author Stephen Goldsmith, will be published in September. In 2009, Susan Crawford served as special assistant to President Barack Obama for science, technology, and innovation policy. She is a former law partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale). She is the founder of OneWeb Day, a global Earth Day for the Internet held each Sept. 22. She earned a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, and a law degree from Yale University.

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Earlier this month, Neelie Kroes, vice president of the European Commission, announced that she would soon release a proposal to create a single market for data communications in Europe. The goal, Kroes says, is to “deliver a competitive, connected continent. Where operators can smash barriers and think big. Plan, bid and invest on a large scale.”

That sounds good. Unfortunately, details of the plan that have leaked out suggest it amounts to a deal with network operators -- both cable and wireless -- that repeats the same mistakes the U.S. has made. Consumers get reduced mobile roaming charges -- not an insignificant achievement. But in exchange, Kroes is encouraging consolidation and enabling abusive monopoly behavior by network operators, with no regulation to stop them.