| AT&T didn't get carte blanche - rate freedom limited »online.wsj.com/article/SB1192169···news_wsj
The decision freed up AT&T from having to adhere to detailed rate obligations, but didn't grant the wider freedom it had been seeking. This means that competitive carriers would no longer be able to see what AT&T generally charges business customers for providing some forms of broadband service, and thus be able to price their own services accordingly. To mollify the concerns of these smaller phone and Internet companies, the FCC established a complaints procedure by which any complaint made against AT&T would have to be resolved within five months.
In order to win fellow Republican Mr. McDowell's vote, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin may have agreed to take some action to address widespread concerns about the state of competition in another area, the special access market, which provides high-volume voice and data services to large commercial customers.
All the FCC did was prevent competitors from seeing what AT&T is charging customers so that they could undercut AT&T by a few cents to get the business. Now those competitors have to make their bids for business based more on their costs and profit aspirations without getting inside knowledge of AT&T's bids.
In effect, the FCC allows a closed bid process when carriers bid for a customer's business. This may actually lower costs for businesses shopping for phone & internet services since true competition is now in play.
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openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:2 | Sacrilege...how can the FCC's obvious favoritism towards the telecoms result in lower prices...[/sarcasm] |
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| reply to fAcEtIOUs
said by fAcEtIOUs:... This may actually lower costs for businesses shopping for phone & internet services since true competition is now in play. If this results in lower costs for business, I will turn into a pumpkin.
check back in a few months to see if I am orange.
You, Martin, McDowell and whoever else can say the U.S. has a competitive market until the cows come home, but it won't make it so. Yes, there may be SOME markets (likely very few) that are competitive, but the overall U.S. market is dominated by a few large telcos that generally are monopolies in the regions they serve.
Everyone knows the FCC hides reports they don't like, purposefully collects data known to be incomplete and inadequate for decision making and almost ALWAYS sides with the incumbents. In the cases where it appears the FCC makes a decision in the consumers interest, it is usually a sham or has no real impact on the true market.
The bottom line is that the telecom industry in the U.S. is becoming more concentrated, less regulated and more monopolistic with every decision the FCC makes. There is a reason we keep dropping in the rankings and it's NO COMPETITION. This FCC decision just helps there be that much less competition.
go ahead, tell me the U.S. market is competitive - it just ain't so. |
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MyrlinPremium
join:2002-09-22
Elysian, MN | you can say that again and again and...
well said nasadude! |
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