Hi Mike,
From the editorial in last week's RCR News:
D.C. Notes
By: Jeffrey Silva, RCR News
Wireless regulation is a temporary state of affairs. Some years from now there will be very few, if any, wireless rules. This is not a bold prediction. It is a foregone conclusion based on a confluence of economic, technological and political forces that have only gained in strength since 1993, when Congress pre-empted most state regulation of wireless carriers.
First, working backward, the political case for wireless deregulation in coming years will become more persuasive as policy-makers come under increased criticism for the continued lack of local residential competition promised by the '96 telecom act.
To escape the wrath of consumers and their inside-the-Beltway advocates, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission will look to wireless technology-mobile and fixed-for political cover.
In the global arena, U.S. telecom policy-makers will grow tired and embarrassed of reading another news story of European and Asian wireless superiority.
Wireless rules-one by one-will go by the wayside. And those rules that remain intact likely will be wireless-friendly. Deregulation will not happen tomorrow, or even the next day. But, most surely, it will happen. Talk of FCC reform is no more than code for industry deregulation.
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Indeed, the technological transformation of our day is also a political transformation. High-tech is king; political decisions affecting everything from visas to taxes are skewed toward digital.
The only thing standing in the way are the trial lawyers. Whether it's securities litigation or privacy litigation or consumer-fraud litigation or even health litigation, the lawyers will be there. It's the brave new battleground, called the marketplace.
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petere |
