Re: Not enough phone competition? Answer: regulate more!

[Rabid Wombat <wombat@mcfeely.bsfs.org>]

One of the main issues is the claim by INX carriers that the RBOCs are 
uncooperative in providing customer data in electronic format, as required.

-r.w.

On Thu, 14 Aug 1997, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> <B>By JEANNINE AVERSA<P>
> <B>Associated Press Writer<P>
> 	WASHINGTON (AP) - Just 18 months after Congress deregulated the
> communications industry, the nation's top telephone regulator asked
> lawmakers Thursday for more tools to bring Americans local phone
> competition.
> 	"So far, scarcely any local competition has been delivered to
> residential or business consumers," Federal Communications Commission
> Chairman Reed Hundt said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.
> 	"We have a major challenge to introduce competition in the local
> telephone markets and that challenge is not yet being met," he said.
> 	Hundt asked Congress to write into law provisions:
> 	-Giving the FCC authority to set national pricing rules for those
> seeking access to local phone networks.
> 	-Requiring courts to defer to reasonable FCC judgments in disputes
> over the telecommunications law.
> 	-Consolidating appeals over the telecommunications law and FCC
> rules before a single unspecified court.
> 	-Creating a national policy to enforce the telecommunications law,
> giving the FCC power to compensate injured parties. The FCC now can order
> violators to stop breaking the law and fine offenders.
> 	Congressional hearings into the slow pace of local phone
> competition are slated for this fall.
> 	Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Commerce Committee that
> oversees telecommunications policy, said when asked about the proposals,
> "I do not think that giving the FCC more authority to regulate is the
> answer."
> [...]
> 
> 
>