Regional Phone Companies Win Freedom From Federal Rules
Posted on: Thursday, 10 June 2004, 06:00 CDT
WASHINGTON - In a victory for regional telephone companies, the Bush administration decided Wednesday to let stand a ruling freeing them from sharing their networks with competitors. Consumer advocates said the decision would drive up costs for phone customers.
BellSouth, which serves Louisiana and eight other southeastern states, said the nullification of the rules would not automatically translate into higher prices.
"BellSouth has pledged to its wholesale customers that we will not cut off service or raise rates for any wholesale interconnection services without going through established processes," said Herschel Abbott, BellSouth's vice president of governmental affairs.
"We have offered our wholesale customers an opportunity to lock in today's rates until the end of the year and set stable rates through 2007 by negotiating and signing a new long-term agreement with us," he added.
The decision by Solicitor General Theodore Olson, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, was the latest legal setback for federal regulators who have been trying for eight years to come up with rules to spur more competition for local phone service.
The Federal Communications Commission still can appeal on its own, but the Supreme Court would have been more likely to consider the challenge had the Justice Department joined the appeal. Phone companies favoring the rules, such as MCI and AT&T, could also appeal.
The regional phone companies - Verizon, Qwest, SBC, in addition to BellSouth - hailed Olson's decision.
"The administration had a clear choice: continue down a path of extreme government intervention in a competitive marketplace or embrace the free-market principles that make our economy strong," said Walter B. McCormick Jr., who heads the United States Telecom Association, the main trade group for the regionals.
Consumer groups and long-distance companies that want to gain a greater share of local markets were disappointed.
"This decision is the final nail in the coffin for local telephone competition," said Gene Kimmelman, senior director of public policy at Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine.
The FCC's last attempt at setting rules for local competition came in August, when the agency issued regulations allowing states to require that the regional phone companies lease parts of their networks at low prices to long distance competitors such as AT&T and MCI.
The rules were the result of a contentious 3-2 vote that left FCC Chairman Michael Powell on the losing end - the first time he had been in the minority since taking over the five-member panel in 2001.
The regionals balked at the regulations, saying they left them at a competitive disadvantage. In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with them and threw out the rules.
Related Articles
- Large U.S. trucking and freight transportation company makes corporate decision to reduce CO2 greenhouse gas emission and fuel consumption
- The Kitchens are Heating Up at The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes for the Best Teen Chef Local Cook-off Competitions Coast-to-Coast
- Research and Markets: The FCC Delays AT&T/Bellsouth Decision & Global Broadband Report Available Now
- Justice Department Decision Buoys BellSouth on Local Phone Service Competition
- Court throws out rules on phone competition
- Court Tosses Rules for Phone Competition
- Appeals Court Strikes Down FCC Ruling Requiring Phone Firms to Lease Lines
- Appeals Court Rejects Rules for Phone Competition
- Appeals Court Rejects FCC Rules Forcing Phone Companies to Rent Out Lines
- Bellsouth, Verizon Argue for Higher Florida Rates for Competitors
 |
 |
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds