BDS Reform With Price Cuts Would Encourage 'Virtuous Cycle,' Incompas Says

Pro-competitive reform, including price reductions, "will promote a 'virtuous cycle' of investment and development" in the business data service market, Incompas said in a filing Thursday in docket 16-143. "[A]s the Commission has found -- competition spurs innovations by network providers, which drive end-user demand for more advanced broadband services, which in turn stimulates competition among providers to further invest in their broadband networks and the services offered over those networks," it said. The filing includes a report from WIK-Consult that said price reductions would have "spill-over effects that multiply the benefits" to the rest of society. "In particular, the WIK-Consult Report demonstrates that, in addition to restoring consumer surplus appropriated by incumbent LECs, regulatory reductions in prices for business data services to restore competitive levels would result in a 'reduction in deadweight loss, where increased consumption in response to reducing inflated prices generates societal benefits,'" Incompas said.