Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (52495)	8/15/2002 9:19:28 PM
From: EJhonsa	Respond to of 54805

The FCC chairman's hands-off approach may no longer be the appropriate one for the battered sector I'm glad someone else is finally picking up on this. I can't help but cringe every time Powell steps up to the podium and pontificates about how unleashing the forces of the free market is all that's needed for the telecom industry to prosper. It seems that he's forgetten the fact that those forces tend to get diluted quite a bit when the leading players in an industry are century-old monopolies. All the more so when they have lucrative, existing business lines that they'd prefer not to cannibalize. What's truly mind-numbing about Powell's stance, however, is the hypocrisy behind it: He has no problem taking a hands-off approach to broadband, but is doing anything but that on the issue of digital TV. This is evidenced first by his coaxing of several leading cable operators (under the threat of a mandate) to start offering high-definition content by the end of the year, and recently by fully mandating that all large-screen TVs to possess digital tuners within two years. Whatever shortcomings it may have, the TV industry is nothing short of a free-market utopia when compared with last-mile telecom. Eric