To: ftth who wrote (5204 ) 3/13/2002 10:46:40 AM From: elmatador Respond to QUOTE: Anti-trust proceedings certainly would have a good, clean shot at toppling the RBOCs. One stumbling block, because the competitive telecom industry for close to 20 years had its collective heads up their collective asses (not a pretty picture) and didn't try anti-trust suits in the 1980s and early 1990s, is that the various states and the FCC seem to be saying that there is indeed competition. Just look at the stuff that Price Waterhouse Coopers just certified for Verizon's request to enter IX in Delaware (long distance in Delaware is surely an oxymoron). Each state certification seems to say that competition exists, is widespread, the RBOC is a good citizen and the RBOC should be let in - just makes the anti-trust case harder once government agencies say the opposite. I don't understand the analogy to the Interstate. The government owns the Interstates and permits very few competing interstates. State highways and local streets are all taxpayer funded and don't compete. Hence, if we want to create competitive markets, the government can't be doling out the money - go look at Defense contractors, a group of anti-competitive companies if there ever was one. If it's private capital and private ownership, then at best the government eases regulatory burdens on everyone and gets the assets deployed by allowing market forces to control. Anti-trust suits imply that one or more entities have distorted markets unfairly. Overregulation, while it may ensnarl the RBOCs, ensnarls the competitors since they get drawn into endless baloney about each and every rate, interconnection agreement, tariff, etc. That would be moving the game to being played on the telcos home ice so to speak, and we have seen how successful that strategy has been. There is the problem of government policy: if it wants something done, it usually pays for it - the moon mission, the interstate highways, nuclear weapons - and controls it. A policy without funding is mostly meaningless policy wonking.
