If what they say about those who fail to learn from history is true, it’s troubling that the 10th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act just passed with barely a blip outside the business pages. The 1996 Act is the quintessential example of corrupt media policymaking. Hashed out behind closed doors by industry lobbyists with almost no public input, the bill killed… return to article
-
subscribe to print magazine
-
email this article to a friend
-
Reader Comments (1)Page 1 of 1 pagesthe 1996 act was not a success. The baby bells fought competition, interconnection agreements, tooth and nail and have tried to carve out the internet.
How many residential customers have much choice for local phone service, for example. Until recently, when cable started to offer it, most had none, and now have maybe just the cable company as an alternative. Even more recently, internet phone has emerged, but as a primary phone service, can be problematic. Cable necessitates bundling with cable TV.
How many realize that the 1996 bill was supposed to create competition and healthy choices for local phone service, just like we had for long distance carriers? Not many have a clue. The only fierce competition that emerged for local phone service was for business customers. This was the way competitors started out and gained an edge, by cherry-picking lucrative business customers.They never really got beyond that. The incumbent carriers were there ready to pay fines to regulators and bury their competitors in litigation.
The nutty thing too, was many new competitors were laying down their own fiber optic lines in the most business-dense areas of cities, in addition to entering into interconnection agreements with the incumbent carriers. The extra lines are pretty redundant, when you think about it. More infrastructure is OK, but redundancy over redundancy was a bit much. You have to wonder if some sorts of services should be deregulated at all.
I haven’t seen deregulation in many industries that didn’t ultimately benefit business over consumers and raise prices, the exact opposite of the supposed intent.
Airline dereg lowered the price of airfares and long distance phone rates dropped. But the rest of telecommunications deregulation only gave companies all the benefits of their former mopnopolies and none of the state and federal oversight. This is true of energy/electric deregulation too. We have been suckered. A new bill in the climate on Capitol Hill these days could only be a disaster.
Posted by marge on Apr 2, 2006 at 11:03 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
register a new account »Posting Security
Also by Craig Aaron
Popular Discussions
- The 9/11 Faith Movement
Many Americans believe 9/11 was a conspiracy by the U.S. government
1979 posts since Jul 11 06 - What’s the 411 on 9/11?
891 posts since Dec 21 05 - Democrats: It’s the War
659 posts since Nov 1 05 - Was the Presidential Election Stolen?
462 posts since Jun 19 06 - A Fundamental History Lesson
The rise of National Socialism proved politics and religion don't mix
427 posts since Oct 10 05
© 2006 In These Times | Reprint Policy | Privacy Policy | Powered by Expression Engine | RSS Feeds
