Tablet computers have evolved beyond the novelty stage.   About 10% of U.S. adults now have a tablet computer, 57% have a laptop and 55% have a desktop.  We were drawn to consider a tablet computer by three themes; downsized gear for easier travel, a better backup storage solution and the advantages of a book reader.  [...]

This past Friday, legislation was introduced into both the House and Senate that would reform the television industry, doing away with what many say are outdated and onerous regulations that are hampering innovation and fair competition between multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) and broadcasters, in addition to curbing the ability of broadcasters to compete in [...]

This season, television adverts by mobile carriers usually mention their “4G” or “LTE” and intimate that data flows much faster on their network.  The faster 4G data part is true.  But, the “on their network” part is a stretch for some because they have not built out 4G LTE to many consumers.  AT&T reaches 70 [...]

Zack Christenson, a regular contributor for ACI, wrote an execellent piece on how cable/video service reforms will increase competition and benefit consumers.  Zack’s piece, published on THE HILL’s “Congress Blog” is available here.

We applaud Senator Kohl and Senator Lee for standing up for consumers by raising additional concerns about Google’s dominant market power and questionable business practices, particularly given the inconsistencies in the testimony of Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. While Schmidt seemed to agree with the Senators that Google did have dominant market power during sworn [...]

The CBS TV show “Person of Interest” started as science-fiction, yet despite no change in its premise, it is becoming just drama.  Its premise of pervasive video and audio surveillance is no longer very fictional, and these technologies raise real-world privacy concerns for consumers.   In the last week, news has featured Carrier IQ, a [...]

Do you “spend” savings on projects that will create future prosperity for you and your family?   If you do, you are actually “investing.”   Most consumers and businesses invest; we upgrade houses or equipment and we buy financial assets.  We invest in mundane projects such as replacing a leaky roof, or in speculative projects such as [...]

ACI Experts Erwin Blackstone, Larry Darby (deceased) and Joseph Fuhr write the on the duopolies, and conclude that industry structure is not a sufficient basis for imposing regulations.  To read this study visit CATO. 

This ConsumerGram discusses how Google uses near perfect price discrimination and multi-sided markets to profit on search advertising.  The ConsumerGram was written by Dr. Larry Darby, a former FCC Bureau Chief and Chief Economist, shortly before his passing last year.  Click here to download the entire piece — CG on multisided markets and price discrimination

In light of Verizon’s acquisition of billions of dollars of spectrum from the cable operators, it now seems apparent that AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile is even more important to the interests of consumers.  Verizon is poised to acquire spectrum that would cover 259 million American’s, giving it the ability to drastically increase its level [...]