more on Com Copp's statement re FCC Approves of Mergers

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Adam Peake <ajp () glocom ac jp>
Date: November 1, 2005 8:26:56 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
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 () YAHOO COM>
> Date: October 31, 2005 3:54:47 PM EST
> To: CYBERTELECOM-L () LISTSERV AOL COM
> Subject: FCC Approves of Mergers
> Reply-To: Telecom Regulation & the Internet <CYBERTELECOM- 
> L () LISTSERV AOL COM>
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
> October 31, 2005        Mark Wigfield, 202-418-0253
>         Email:  mark.wigfield () fcc gov
>
>
> FCC APPROVES SBC/AT&T AND VERIZON/MCI MERGERS
> Transactions Offer Significant Public Interest
> Benefits

[deleted]

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