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Technology Stocks : AUTOHOME, Inc -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Boplicity who wrote (3673)	12/31/1998 1:06:00 AM
From: ahhaha	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

The FCC has already indicated they are somewhat positive about the merger, but there is this nagging factor as evidenced by an Oregon community that demanded that common carrier status is required to operate in their backyard. I have been concerned about this for 9 months and recently, in November, we had a general debate on this thread about the implications. A review of that discussion is very worthwhile. I came out of it with the strong belief that carrier status isn't that much of a negative, but it would certainly impact the stock price especially in the probable event that the merger would be vacated by T. Again, I don't think merger failure is as earthshaking as I once did. The devil is in the details and the details are in that discussion. Adamik is glossing over the fact that T gets VOIP out of an unconstrained approval. That opens local to long and busts the regional RBOC strangleholds. This in itself would be what the FCC wants, but the issue of common carrier becomes a major sticking point. Since the cable plant has a private status that currently exempts it from restrictions placed by the FCC to motivate opening of markets, we have a complex contradiction in edict. To resolve this awkward impasse, The FCC would have to issue new constraints on cable access, in particular, on VOIP. They don't want to delimit local to long in its market opening aspect, but they have created ancillary beneficiaries of their earlier attempts to force market opening through reciprocal compensation, so they must impose partial reciprocity. In either case the FCC must choose between USW, AOL,and consumer interest groups, and the effective creation of competition in local markets. I have believed that no decision was possible, because the FCC is in a political black box. They can't move even as much as Schrodinger's Cat. The Justice Department's ok today now tips the scales toward the FCC deciding for an unconstrained similar ok for merger. This would be consistent with the intent of Congress up to the '96 Act. It remains to see how effective loud whining will move the FCC to a Luddite stance. If the FCC does approve without constraint, it is extremely bullish for ATHM and it is not bearish for AOL.