"The comparison to the old world is something to get excited about. We have the potential for more choice and innovation, and a different regulatory environment that doesn't place as much weight on economic regulations of terms and conditions"
About this Quote
Powell’s “old world” is less nostalgia than a rhetorical bogeyman: a Europe-coded shorthand for slower growth, heavier rules, and regulators who think in terms of public utility rather than platform dynamism. By framing the present as a break from that past, he gives deregulation the sheen of a cultural upgrade. “Something to get excited about” is doing real work here, recruiting techno-optimism and consumer desire as political cover. The promise isn’t simply better policy; it’s a more thrilling future.
The strategic ambiguity is in “choice and innovation.” Those words sound like consumer empowerment, but the subtext is industry freedom: fewer constraints on how companies bundle services, write contracts, manage networks, and structure pricing. When he nods to “terms and conditions,” he’s effectively waving at the fine print where power actually sits. Economic regulation of those terms is the boring, unsexy part of governance - the part that can force transparency, limit lock-in, or curb discriminatory practices. Powell recasts that oversight as dead weight.
Context matters: Powell, as FCC chair in the early 2000s, spoke from the high-water mark of American deregulatory confidence, when broadband and telecom competition were treated as self-correcting markets rather than infrastructure with monopoly tendencies. The quote’s intent is to define regulation itself as the obstacle to progress, not a tool to shape it. It’s a worldview where the consumer wins indirectly, as a byproduct of letting firms move faster - and where “different” regulation quietly means lighter regulation, by design.
The strategic ambiguity is in “choice and innovation.” Those words sound like consumer empowerment, but the subtext is industry freedom: fewer constraints on how companies bundle services, write contracts, manage networks, and structure pricing. When he nods to “terms and conditions,” he’s effectively waving at the fine print where power actually sits. Economic regulation of those terms is the boring, unsexy part of governance - the part that can force transparency, limit lock-in, or curb discriminatory practices. Powell recasts that oversight as dead weight.
Context matters: Powell, as FCC chair in the early 2000s, spoke from the high-water mark of American deregulatory confidence, when broadband and telecom competition were treated as self-correcting markets rather than infrastructure with monopoly tendencies. The quote’s intent is to define regulation itself as the obstacle to progress, not a tool to shape it. It’s a worldview where the consumer wins indirectly, as a byproduct of letting firms move faster - and where “different” regulation quietly means lighter regulation, by design.
Quote Details
| Topic | Technology |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Michael
Add to List
