[IP] more on Com Copp's statement re FCC Approves of Mergers
Begin forwarded message:
From: Adam Peake <ajp@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 1, 2005 8:26:56 AM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] FCC Approves of Mergers
Commissioner Copps' statement on the mergers and state of US
telecoms. Well worth reading
(Thanks to Susan Crawford's blog for the pointer <http://
scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/10/31/1333593.html> and
great comment.)
Adam
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-261936A4.doc>
STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS,
CONCURRING
Re: SBC Communications Inc. and AT&T Corp. Applicants for Approval of
Transfer
of Control, Memorandum Opinion and Order (WC Docket No. 05-65)
Verizon Communications Inc. and MCI, Inc. Applications for Approval of
Transfer of Control, Memorandum Opinion and Order (WC Docket No. 05-75)
The mergers before us are about more than the union of this country's
largest telecommunications carriers. They are about consumers' phone
bills, the availability of competitive broadband options and the
future of the Internet. But in a sense, these mergers can also be
seen as an epitaph for the competition that many of us thought we
would enjoy as a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. That
legislation, I am convinced, envisioned a vastly different
communications landscape than the one we find ourselves living in today.
If you seek the reason why we haven't arrived at that happy valley of
competition rife with consumer benefits, you can start with the
misdirected policies of the FCC over the last several years. On too
many fronts, the Commission put the spear to the pro-competitive
policies of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It put intra-modal
competition for the residential market pretty much beyond reach for
new entrant carriers and then proceeded to inhibit enterprise
competition, too. We turned our eyes away when enforcement was
needed to keep bottleneck facilities open. And all the while we kept
singing confidently "Don't Worry, Be Happy" --inter-modal competition
is going to save us with all its new options. Maybe, but then again
maybe not"-- we're still waiting. I think we ought to be concerned.
Thanks in part to our actions, the wireline market became
increasingly the province of the few. More than half of the wireless
market came under the control of incumbent wireline providers. New
services like VoIP have been held back by the high cost of broadband
in this country. And now the Internet backbone seems headed in the
same direction of control by a favored few.
This state of affairs is not of my making or choosing. The record
shows that I objected vociferously to many of these changes. I would
have chosen a very different path than the one we travel today. But
in the end, we are charged with considering these mergers in the
context of the world that is, not the one that might have been.
In this environment, I believe my responsibility is to identify and
fight for what we can preserve, so that American consumers can still
enjoy some competition in telecom services; that business customers,
too, can benefit from competitive rates and innovative service
choices and lower prices; and that, when it comes to the Internet, we
can all go where we want to go and do what we want to do with this
dynamic tool that is so critical to our nation's future. These
things are all clearly in the public interest.
The Order the Commission adopts today falls far short of ideal.
Maybe a better way to put it on this Halloween Day is to say: It's
not a trick or much of a treat, but it's all you get if you come
knocking at the Commission's door today. Yet, clearly, this is
better than approving these mergers without any conditions. (rest at
the fcc URL above)
Begin forwarded message:
From: Robert Cannon <rcannon100@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 31, 2005 3:54:47 PM EST
To: CYBERTELECOM-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: FCC Approves of Mergers
Reply-To: Telecom Regulation & the Internet <CYBERTELECOM-
L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
October 31, 2005 Mark Wigfield, 202-418-0253
Email: mark.wigfield@xxxxxxx
FCC APPROVES SBC/AT&T AND VERIZON/MCI MERGERS
Transactions Offer Significant Public Interest
Benefits
[deleted]
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