BellSouth CEO Addresses Need for New Policy for Telecom Industry

📅 January 15, 2002 - At an address yesterday to telecom industry regulators and business leaders, BellSouth (bellsouth.com) chairman and CEO Duane Ackerman called for a new regulatory approach for the growing telecommunications industry.

Speaking at the Emerging Issues Policy Forum at Amelia Island, Florida,Ackerman said that today's telecom marketplace is no longer just aboutwireline services. Instead it is about "telecommunications," includingwireline, wireless, cable and the Internet, and it does not fit within themold of current regulatory policy.
"The reigning model of regulation was not designed for today's competitivemarketplace nor is it designed for the emerging world of digitalcommunications," stated Ackerman. "Advances in technology and changes in themarketplace - how we communicate - have rendered the reigning regulatorymodel ineffective," he said.
In his remarks, Ackerman summarized the significant changes that haveoccurred in the industry since the Telecom Act, noting, "first, data hasexploded. Of all the traffic on BellSouth's network, 66 percent is now data.Today there are more than 120-million wireless customers compared with 38-million in 1995," he stated. "And perhaps the most startling fact, while theTelecom Act didn't anticipate the Internet, today hundreds of millions ofpeople worldwide are linked to the Net making Email the biggest personalcommunications breakthrough since the phone itself," he said.
Ackerman pointed to four basic observations that exist with today's telecomregulatory model noting that in total these tend to constrain innovation inthe marketplace, distort the investment of participants in the industrymaking it difficult to invest in new technologies, particularly in ruralareas, and serve to slow the delivery of new services to all customers.
"For example, BellSouth is regulated in broadband, our competitors aren't,"said Ackerman. "We're aren't asking that cable be regulated - even behemothslike AOL - Time Warner and AT&T-Comcast. Instead we ask that we not beregulated in Digital Subscriber Line services."
In his remarks, Ackerman called for a change in policy. He suggested thatthe new approach should be "minimalist," and deregulatory in focus,reflecting the realities of changing technology and the marketplace. "Thenew model should recognize that the telecom industry has strong competition,using at least three different technologies, resulting in the fact thattoday in many areas there is little if any need for regulation at the retaillevel," stated Ackerman.