Robert Frieden

Affiliate Law Faculty Professor and Pioneers Chair in Telecommunication, Penn State University Location: University Park   rmf5@psu.edu   814-863-7996   Curriculum Vitae SSRN Profile Blog

About Frieden

Rob Frieden holds the Pioneers Chair in Telecommunications and Law at Penn State University. He is a leading analyst in the field of telecommunications and Internet infrastructure and has authored many comprehensive works on international telecommunications, Internet law and policy, cable television, and communications law. Professor Frieden has published over 100 journal articles and four books on various telecommunications topics.

Prior to joining Penn State, Professor Frieden served as Deputy Director, International Relations, Motorola Satellite Communications, Inc., where he managed the regulatory and international liaison efforts for Motorola’s IRIDIUM low earth orbiting satellite project. He has held senior level policy making positions in government and worked in the private sector as an attorney. Professor Frieden received a B.A. in Telecommunications from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the University of Virginia.

Course
Telecommunications Law and Regulation

Education
J.D., University of Virginia
B.A., University of Pennsylvania (with distinction)

Publications
Refereed and Law Review Articles

Rob Frieden, Challenges to the Conventional Wisdom About Mergers and Consumer Welfare in a Converging Internet Marketplace, 65 Villanova Law Review, 479-521 (2020).

Rob Frieden, The evolving 5G case study in United States unilateral spectrum planning and policy, 44 TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY (2020).

Rob Frieden, There’s Probably a Blackout in Your Television Future: Tracking New Carriage Negotiation Strategies Between Video Content Programmers and Distributors, 43 THE COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF LAW AND THE ARTS, No. 4, 487-515 (2020).

Rob Frieden, The evolving 5G case study in spectrum management and industrial policy, 43 TELECOMMUNICATIONS POLICY, No. 6, 49-62 (July, 2019).

Rob Frieden, Two-sided Internet Markets and the Need to Assess Both Upstream and Downstream Impacts, 68 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 713-760 (2019).

Rob Frieden, How Internet Platforms Intermediaries Affect Competition and Consumers, 20 NETWORK INDUSTRIES QUARTERLY, No. 3, 3-8 (June, 2018).

Rob Frieden, The Internet of Platforms and Two-Sided Markets: Implications for Competition and Consumers, 63 VILLANOVA LAW REVIEW 269-320 (2018).

Rob Frieden, Freedom to Discriminate: Assessing the Lawfulness and Utility of Biased Broadband Networks, 20 VANDERBILT JOURNAL OF ENTERTAINMENT AND TECHNOLOGY LAW, 655-708 (2018).

Rob Frieden, The Mixed Blessing in Subsidized Internet Access, 15 COLORADO TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL 269-306 (2017).

Rob Frieden, Grey nuances in the black and white debate over subsidized Internet access.

Rob Frieden, Conflict in the Network of Networks: How Internet Service Providers Have Shifted from Partners to Adversaries, 38 COMMUNICATIONS & ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL, No. 1, 63-90 (Winter, 2016).

Books or Parts of Books

Rob Frieden, Operations of Internet Platform Intermediaries, in APPLIED ECONOMICS IN THE DIGITAL ERA: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF GARY MADDEN, James Alleman, Mohsen Hamoudia & Paul Rappoport (eds.) (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

Rob Frieden, An Introduction to Data Property Ownership Rights and Data Protection Responsibilities, in RESEARCH ON COMPREHENSIVE NETWORK GOVERNANCE IN THE ERA OF DIGITAL ECONOMY, Bin Zhang, ed. (Beijing: BUPT Press, 2019).

Rob Frieden, Achieving a Level Competitive Playing Field in a Convergent and Concentrating Telecommunications Marketplace, in Jorge Pérez Martínez and Zoraida Frías Barroso, eds. A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM, 165-196 (Madrid: Fundación Telefónica, 2016).

Representative Pro Bono Work

Primary author of an Amicus brief in FCC v. Prometheus Radio Project, Supreme Court Docket No. 19-1231.

Serving as a Panel Member of the Belgium FWO Review College for 2021-2023. This organization evaluates grant proposals much like the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Pro bono background provided the U.S. Government Accountability Office staff authoring: 5G Deployment FCC Needs Comprehensive Strategic Planning to Guide Its Efforts (June, 2020).