Supreme Court To Revisit 1996 Telecom Act This Term

Masem writes "In addition to the cases of online adult material mentioned yesterday, the Supreme Court is slated to hear several cases regarding the failure of the 1996 Telecommunications Bill and it's affect on the current market, as summarized by NYTimes (Free Reg Req). Namely, 10 high profile cases that were in the federal circuits are being condensed into 3 specific cases that the court will hear separately. The first is dealing with rates and fees the local bell can incur on competing services (including alternate carriers and DSL CLECs) that use their equipment. The second is whether there still exists differences between the concept of common carrier between phone and cable services since the types of service that both are providing are quickly merging. The third is in regard to the ability for the federal system to overrule state utility boards in their decison and penalty of telecom companies."

Comments

public goods

[shibut]

It is always amazing to me that a law that tries to get rid of monopoly/ies has left so much power in their hands without real controls on the amount of rents they can extract. It is especially strange since telecom lines in today's world are a public good, much like roads in the early 20th century. While there are toll roads, it would have been inconceivable to have all roads be toll in the 1950's, for example. I wonder if it is possible to argue in court that the nature of the service provided has changed and thus various other laws now apply to telecom lines (thus creating a conflict with the telecom law that must now be resolved by the supreme court).