The United States has asymmetric regulation of the provision of broadband Internet access service. A cable television system operator is not regulated in its sale of cable modem service. In contrast, an incumbent local exchange carrier ("ILEC") that offers digital subscriber line ("DSL") service faces price regulation as well as the obligation to offer competitors the use of its broadband network on a wholesale (or, "unbundled") basis so that they may offer, in the retail market, DSL services that compete with the ILEC's own retail offering to consumers.

The social costs of asymmetric regulation are by now familiar. Such regulation leads not to deregulation, but to an enduring "managed competition" far more complex to administer than traditional regulation of a monopoly service provider ever was. The alternative to asymmetric regulation is either symmetric regulation or symmetric freedom from regulation.

Assuming that the latter alternative is preferred, what actual steps would be taken to abolish asymmetric regulation of ILEC provision of broadband Internet access?

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