FCC Gets It (Mostly) Right

[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission made the right call this week in unanimously approving the acquisitions of AT&T and MCI by SBC and Verizon, respectively. We're not thrilled by the anticompetitive conditions imposed by regulators, but they're relatively minor. Moreover, they're a function of the Bush administration's failure to fill an open seat at the five-member agency, which means Chairman Kevin Martin doesn't have a working majority. Two "anticompetitive conditions" are highlighted -- the temporary freeze on the rates SBC and Verizon charge competitors to use their networks and the provision of "naked DSL." Both provisions were pushed by the FCC's two Democratic Commissioners, and Chairman Martin, a Bush appointee, had to pay them more heed than would normally be necessary because only one other Republican serves with him on the panel. The White House can correct this problem by appointing another free-marketeer to fill the current vacancy, which has been open since March, and it's passing strange that this doesn't seem to be a priority. Then again, this administration has had a blind spot toward any number of regulatory agencies that can do economic damage. Still, the editorial concludes, the good news is that the mergers are one more step in reversing two decades of wrongheaded telecom policy initiated by the forced breakup of Ma Bell. In 1984, the local and long-distance sectors of the phone industry were separated, only to have new technologies eventually render the distinction obsolete. "Dramatic changes in the technology, the economics, and the structure of the market have mooted prior concerns" about monopolies, said Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy, Chairman Martin's lone ally. It's about time the FCC noticed.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113098739177187091.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
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