FCC's Michael Powell will let ILECs loose. It will not force them into fulfill check lists before allowing them into long distance.
The result:
1) Will be a severe drop in the ADSL roll out that the ILECs were -painfully and costly- doing to fulfill the regulations now dropped.
2) CLECs will disappear before Autumn.
3) Suppliers of ADSL will be closing down by the week.
4) El Matador was seeing the writing in the wall since September 30th when he started the ADSL IS DEAD Thread
FCC pushes for deregulation
By Peter Spiegel in Washington
Published: February 6 2001 19:55GMT | Last Updated: February 6 2001 21:37GMT
Michael Powell, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, signalled a sharp break from his Democratic predecessors on Tuesday, pledging to roll back telecommunication regulation in almost all areas of the agency's responsibilities.
Mr Powell's drive would have the most immediate impact on the framework of the landmark 1996 telecoms deregulation act, which critics charge has failed to meet its primary goal: unleashing competition in local telephone services.
In his first public comments since assuming the post two weeks ago, Mr Powell defended the law, arguing it had helped spur large investments in broadband technologies. But he indicated he believed the FCC had moved too slowly to allow local telephone monopolies - known as the Baby Bells - from freely competing in all telecom markets.
"I do not believe deregulation is a dessert you serve after people have fed on their vegetables," Mr Powell said in a wide-ranging, hour-long discussion. "Deregulation is what promotes competition. A deregulated environment is what [encourages] new entry."
Easing restrictions on the heavily-regulated Bells would be a significant policy shift. Mr Powell's predecessors, under requirements laid out by the 1996 act, kept strong restraints on the companies until they completed a long checklist to fully open their local networks to competition.
In the four years since the act was passed, the Bells have been completely deregulated in only four states.
Consumer advocates have argued that any easing of regulatory incentives could wipe out new, competitive start-ups, many of which are having difficulty raising capital in the tech-adverse US markets.
But Mr Powell appeared undisturbed by the possibility, predicting that at least a handful of "Bell look-alikes" would be left to compete after the shake out.
"A lot of people show up at gold rushes, but not everyone goes home with the gold," he said. "That's just the brutality of the market."
Mr Powell indicated he would take his deregulatory bent into other areas, including wireless services, where large providers are fighting for the lifting of caps on the amount of spectrum they can own, and TV ownership rules, which prevent any company from owning stations covering more than 35 per cent of the country.
Mr Powell, son of secretary of state Colin Powell, said his liberalisation push would lead to a smaller FCC and announced a sweeping restructuring of the agency that could lead to the elimination or consolidation of several bureaux. |
