The misguided urge to regulate wireless - BusinessWeek

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) has called for an inquiry into the Apple iPhone and BlackBerry Storm, the Senate Commerce Committee has held hearings, and the U.S. Justice Dept. has opened an investigation. Their concern? Wireless carriers market these expensive, cutting-edge smartphones by subsidizing the handsets and requiring two-year service agreements. What they lose on the phones they make back in monthly fees.

To some, this seems unfair and anticompetitive. But calls for regulation are perverse. Indeed, Senator Kerry performs a great favor by singling out the iPhone and the Storm—iconic examples of dynamic, productivity-fueling innovation—as the root of the problem. These products are precisely the disruptive technologies that policymakers should herald. Yes, we need to investigate them—to figure out how to encourage more of the same...