WorldCom Makes A Case To The FCC About Renewing Its Competition [...]
WorldCom Makes A Case To The FCC About Renewing Its Competition Commitment
📅 - WorldCom, a communications provider, today announced its plea to the FCC to renew its weakening commitment to telecom competition as part of its ?triennial review? of 1996 Telecommunications Act requirements. In a statement filed with the FCC, WorldCom called on the Commission to resist pressure from its Bell to limit the range of unbundled network elements (UNEs). As part of the FCC's mandatory review of existing rules that require the Bells to open their networks to competitors, WorldCom submitted the filing.
?The FCC must not reward the Bells for six years of litigation and other stonewalling by relieving them of the obligations that could finally lead to making their markets competitive,? said Michael H. Salsbury, WorldCom General Counsel.
?The Commission has barely begun the difficult regulatory work required to open local markets, and any move to limit the Bells' unbundling obligations would reflect a continuing failure by the FCC to do the job Congress assigned to it -- implementing the 1996 Telecom Act and opening local markets.?
Six years after Congress passed the telecom reform legislation, incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs) continue to enjoy the advantages of monopoly control over local markets. The company pointed out that the relatively more simple process of opening the long distance market took decades.
?The Commission should not use this triennial review as an opportunity to prematurely declare victory and begin to dismantle the foundation upon which local competition will be built,'' Salsbury said.
WorldCom drew comparisons with the development of long distance competition in the 1980s that depended on the availability of access to monopoly-controlled facilities then held by AT&T. Development of local competition depends on access to incumbent LEC facilities through UNEs. The kind of competition that is different by way of medium, touted by FCC Chairman Michael Powell does not yet exist in any meaningful way for business or residential customers and cannot constrain Bell market power.
?If there is any lesson to be learned from the implosion of the competitive LECs, it is that any competitive company that wants to survive for the long term must build its network incrementally as it develops a customer base,? WorldCom says.
?Because companies prefer the control and flexibility that comes with owning their own facilities, they can be expected to build, rather than buy, as long as they earn a reasonable return on their investment.?
?The FCC must not reward the Bells for six years of litigation and other stonewalling by relieving them of the obligations that could finally lead to making their markets competitive,? said Michael H. Salsbury, WorldCom General Counsel.
?The Commission has barely begun the difficult regulatory work required to open local markets, and any move to limit the Bells' unbundling obligations would reflect a continuing failure by the FCC to do the job Congress assigned to it -- implementing the 1996 Telecom Act and opening local markets.?
Six years after Congress passed the telecom reform legislation, incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs) continue to enjoy the advantages of monopoly control over local markets. The company pointed out that the relatively more simple process of opening the long distance market took decades.
?The Commission should not use this triennial review as an opportunity to prematurely declare victory and begin to dismantle the foundation upon which local competition will be built,'' Salsbury said.
WorldCom drew comparisons with the development of long distance competition in the 1980s that depended on the availability of access to monopoly-controlled facilities then held by AT&T. Development of local competition depends on access to incumbent LEC facilities through UNEs. The kind of competition that is different by way of medium, touted by FCC Chairman Michael Powell does not yet exist in any meaningful way for business or residential customers and cannot constrain Bell market power.
?If there is any lesson to be learned from the implosion of the competitive LECs, it is that any competitive company that wants to survive for the long term must build its network incrementally as it develops a customer base,? WorldCom says.
?Because companies prefer the control and flexibility that comes with owning their own facilities, they can be expected to build, rather than buy, as long as they earn a reasonable return on their investment.?
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