IP: Mr. Hollings' Opus

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

]>From: Steve Schear <schear () lvcm com>
> To: "Dewayne-Net Technology List" <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: Mr. Hollings' Opus
> Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 22:47:33 -0800
> MIME-Version: 1.0
>
> <http://www.techcentralstation.com/1051/printer.jsp?CID=1051-030402C>
>
> Mr. Hollings' Opus
> By James K. Glassman    03/04/2002
>
> Jim Glassman: Before the passage of Tauzin-Dingell legislation in the
> House, Congressman Tauzin had said earlier that the bill is going to quote,
> "soar through this chamber, and then we will invite the Senate to take this
> up. I don't believe for one minute, any one senator can bottle this up." He
> may be referring to you.
>
> Sen. Ernest Hollings: I don't think of it as a one man-stand. Several of us
> are very familiar with the enactment of the '96 [Telecommunications Act]
> deregulation and realize that we've been had. I mean, we had the long
> distance deregulated under [U.S. District] Judge Harold Greene back in '84;
> we were doing exceedingly well. And the Bell companies said, "Look, we
> tried to get into that competition, that long distance." And they finally
> prevailed on me.
>
> I'm a doubting-Thomas on all this deregulation, but in any event, I said,
> how do you deregulate this Bell monopoly? You just can't say, "On your
> mark, get set, go." You've got to have it in a studied way that's fair to
> the Bell companies because we had the finest, and still have the finest
> telecommunications in the world.
>
> And, on the other hand, if you just let them go, they'd extend the monopoly
> and squash all competition. It was only after all seven (regional Bell
> telephone companies) and all lawyers agreed that we went forward with the
> bill. And that's why it passed 95-to-5 in the Senate.
>
> So we got a good bill. But heaven's above, as soon as it was enacted, (the
> Bells) contested the constitutionality of it, pulled every trick in the
> book, and have been on the stretch out of doing absolutely nothing over the
> past six years.
>
> steve



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