Artificially subsidized competition was not/is not sustainable in our economy. It was bad public policy to begin with. However, now that cable competition and VoIP have roared ahead, it's NOT appropriate for a new FCC chair to begin tinkering with the rules again. President Bush will be well-advised to choose a chair carefully to replace Powell.
"Over the last four years, the commission has moved away from trying to manage competition among the phone companies by repealing or watering down rules that were intended to encourage - and subsidize - smaller rivals to the Bell companies. Mr. Powell has maintained that the regulations were no longer necessary and that enough new competition to the Bells is coming from cable and wireless businesses.
But Mr. Powell's critics say that in moving to deregulate the industry, the F.C.C. has ignored the needs of many customers who want only low-cost local and long-distance phone service.
Perhaps the most important of the deregulatory changes were ones issued last year that eliminated the relatively inexpensive access that long-distance companies had to the networks owned by the regional Bell carriers. The elimination of low access rates led to significant financial pressure on both AT&T and MCI. In AT&T's case, the change ultimately caused it to move toward withdrawal from the residential telephone business. MCI has also reduced its residential business."
No comments:
Post a Comment