IP: just one more cost of doing business

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 10:28:21 +0200
To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: just one more cost of doing business

Wrong Numbers

Critics say Baby Bells' access fines are the cost of doing business

By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 5/20/2002

Over the last five years, the four Baby Bell phone companies have paid tens
of millions of dollars in fines for failing to give small competitors fair
access to their networks.

Virtually every month brings news of the latest six- and seven-figure
penalties paid by SBC Communications and, to a smaller extent, Verizon
Communications, BellSouth and Qwest. Their offense: withholding or delaying
access to their phone lines and switching stations. Such access for rivals
was required by the government in exchange for letting the Bells team up in
mergers and enter long-distance phone markets in several states.

But now some industry regulators and Bell competitors are questioning
whether the financial sanctions the Bells face are so anemic - and such a
small fraction of the profits they can reap by squelching competition - that
they have come to be treated as just one more cost of doing business.

--SNIP--

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/140/business/Wrong_Numbers+.shtml

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geoff.goodfellow () iconia com, Prague CZ * tel/mobil +420 (0)603 706 558
"success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get"
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html



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