Wall Street Journal: FCC Plans to Erase Key Rule On Local Phone Competition. The move would essentially undo the FCC’s key rules intended to make it easier for new providers of local service, including long-distance companies, to compete with the Bells. Instead, the plan would force them to pay higher prices to rent network access or buy more of their own equipment.
This sellout to the Bells would, by regulatory fiat, overrule a central part of the 1996 telecommunications reform law that was designed to promote competition. Coupled with other planned FCC actions, it’s nothing less than a return to the days when monopoly power was the rule — but this time, regulation will have little or no role in protecting customers.Understand: The “Baby” Bells grew to their enormous power by having state-granted monopolies. Now, faced with having to share their infrastructure with others who don’t have such abilities, they’re reneging on the agreements they made prior to the 1996 law. It’s naked corporate power at its worst.
It’s also pure politics at its worst. FCC Chairman Michael Powell is turning out to be a lackey for the established interests in the communications business. He appears to prefer monopoly, despite his occasionally grand talk about pushing competition.
He has one chance left to prove he’s not what we fear. He must push through vastly more deregulation of spectrum — the airwaves — and give the nation more unlicensed spectrum so that real innovation can occur outside the prison the top communications companies have built.
But to doubt Powell’s intentions is the only realistic approach at this point. The FCC is shilling for the incumbent telecommunications powerhouses, and it’s hard to see any real shift — except for the worse.