CEI Report: Wi-Fi success shows permissionless innovation is a competitive advantage

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Wi-Fi is ubiquitous in the United States. It provides Americans with broadband access in countless locations, including homes, schools, hotels, coffee shops, offices, airports, and even on airplanes. With over 18 billion devices in operation, Wi-Fi is always there and everywhere.

According to a new report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), Wi-Fi exploded as a method of broadband internet access because it was introduced in an environment of permissionless innovation that allowed anyone to utilize unlicensed spectrum to provide Wi-Fi services.

Wi-Fi is a success story because it uses unlicensed spectrum, for which the Wi-Fi provider pays no price and there is no centralized control, allowing for anyone to provide Wi-Fi and for innovation in how that is achieved. It is this foundation in permissionless innovation-a concept that embodies risk-taking and confidence in progress and overriding benefits-that has led to Wi-Fi's success and the creation of immense value to the economy.

In stark contrast to permissionless innovation is the precautionary principle, the belief that new innovations should be limited or banned until it can be demonstrated they don't cause harms to individuals, groups, or existing laws.

Americans' embrace of permissionless innovation puts the country at a competitive advantage with adherents to the precautionary principle - a group that includes allies and competitive rivals alike. The approach taken by rival China sees permissionless innovation in internet services is seen as a threat. The Chinese Communist Party has called regulation "a kind of love and care."

In China, government control and limiting the population's access to information are paramount concerns. This approach is use of the precautionary principle in the extreme, it dampens domestic innovation and gives the US a comparative advantage.

"Wi-Fi and the unlicensed spectrum it utilizes have together become an essential part of the great wireless brain driving our economy and daily lives," said study author and CEI adjunct fellow Brian Rankin. "Policymakers should remember the importance of permissionless innovation in the overwhelming success of Wi-Fi when considering how to approach new innovations like artificial intelligence (AI)."

Read the full report on CEI.org.

More from CEI:

• Rankin: Congressional lessons learned: Prioritize private risk capital investment
• Rankin: The FCC's curious curiosity about broadband data caps
• Rankin for National Review: Net Neutrality Trusts Regulation over Markets