| | Having worked in the telecom industry, my immediate reaction toward the repeal of the 1996 telecom act would be one of joy, so long as prior restrictions such as those that prevented local carriers from offering long distance or long distance carriers from owning local networks were also removed.
That act had John McCain and Trent Lott's dirty little fingerprints all over it. McCain got most of his campaign donations from telecom companies and more telecom donations than any other politician. The law basically allowed "competition" under a set of arcane and arbitrary rules which were adjudicated post facto. For example, it was argued that because AT&T had been divested of its local networks, some period should be mandated where local bell companies who would begin to compete with AT&T by selling their own long distance (over there own networks!) should have to allow AT&T to rent their local networks as a "temporary" solution at below market rates until AT&T could get its own local infrastructure off the ground.
Not only did AT&T never build its own local infrastructure, indeed dismantling what little local infrastructure it did have, because renting access at government set rates was cheaper than building their own, companies like MCI, which had never been divested, were allowed to loot the local bells as well, since the were classed as the same type of local carrier.
MCI/Worldcom, which had never been divested of anything, moved into reselling the local bells' service which they could rent from the bells at something like 1/10th of the local bells actual costs. Even then, MCI under Bernie Ebbers engaged in all sorts of unprofitable business models - for instance, reselling the local bells' service to customers of the local bells who were in default (had service cut off for non-payment) managing to bill these deadbeats for a few months until they too stiffed MCI. These customers churned between innumerable resellers, keeping working phone service with the same telephone numbers while staying a few days ahead of losing service due to non-payment buy "moving to another carrier" i.e., another non-phone service provider who would bill for the local company's service as a middleman. Even when carriers like MCI were stiffed by their "customers" for the local bill, MCI would leave the line active but blocked for outgoing calls so that the customer could not switch to another company and control of the line (for which MCI might literally pay a few dollars a month or less) would not revert to the local bell which would sell it at a break-even cost of about a dozen bucks for just local service.
The biggest industry issue now is cable/telephone parity. Cable companies do not have to pay the same outrageous taxes (like the 3% federal surcharge instituted to pay for the Spanish American War in 1898 - and still on the books!) which weigh down the telecoms.
In this environment, the local bells remained barely afloat while having to seek court action to get the rates for their mandated resold service reregulated up to market value. Fiber Optic infrastructure investment was delayed by a decade. And AT&T, which did not commit the same frauds as MCI, could not compete, and became a blue chip turned penny stock to be bought out by Bell South. MCI should have been liquidated, but, based in Trent Lott's home state, this was prevented by behind the scenes pull, and AT&T was doomed. The entire assets of MCI should have been granted to AT&T, although that would have been of little recompense.
Total deregulation is the proper step. Media consolidation is not to be feared. Each now has at least landline, cable, sattellite and cellular access, or at least one or two of those media in even the most rural areas. There is no carrier monopoly anywhere except where mandated by law.
As for media content, have you read your local newspaper lately? How many stories are AP releases sold to every paper in the country, and how many pieces are actually investigative journalism done by actual reporters with bylines. So far as I am aware, the NY POST has Andrea Peyser as its only staff reporter outside the sports and gossip pages. The NY SUN is unique in NY in offering actual investigative reporting, and it breaks national news more often for its size than any other paper of which I am aware.
In any case, the newspapers must focus on after the fact analysis and editorializing. By the time they print a story it is at least half a day old on the internet and has been repeated 12 times on cable news.
All media ownership regulations should be abolished.
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