"This is the kind of behavior that I despise in the gov't, Verison spends millions on burying wire to bring a service to your door and are forced to allow other vendors in so they dont have to do the work....... "
This government regulation must be viewed in historical context. Verizon (then Bell Atlantic/ NYNEX) as part of MaBell/AT&T companies prior to divestiture had significant government support and subsidies in building the national and ubiquitous telephone network. However, their anti-trust behavior against a new entrant, MCI, caused their court-imposed breakup and restrictions on the lines of businesses on its progeny - such as no long distance service allowed for Baby Bells etc. The intent of the Telecom Act of 1996 supported by all incumbent carriers including Verizon was to undo this line of business restriction and allow them to enter the long distance business in return for fostering competition in the monopoly "last mile" of the network by leasing their wires. I would argue in fact that the Telecom Act of 1996 has in fact been highly favorable to Verizon, and all Baby Bells, in that they have been able to emerge as the dominant players in the telecom market (be it local/long distance/wireless) with no siginficant new competiton (even with leasing the wires buried by Verizon). The only real competition is from cable companies, who have their own wires and are not dependent on the leasing arrangements you refer to above.
"What is next? Telling talk radio they have to give equal airtime to all opinions?"
At first glance, the comparison seems reasonable as radio stations own the frequencies and the content delivered over it and certainly no one could reasonably request such a regulation. However, consider the fact that are over 12,000 radio stations in the US (never mind the proliferating podcasters) versus three dominant mobile carriers (the big three account for over 75% market share). It would be more apt to compare them to highways (wires) and automobiles (text messages), prompting a much higher level of supervision.
Slashdot Mirror
Agree. Its another example of the Kuwaitis proving that they have more money than sense!
"This is the kind of behavior that I despise in the gov't, Verison spends millions on burying wire to bring a service to your door and are forced to allow other vendors in so they dont have to do the work....... "
This government regulation must be viewed in historical context. Verizon (then Bell Atlantic/ NYNEX) as part of MaBell/AT&T companies prior to divestiture had significant government support and subsidies in building the national and ubiquitous telephone network. However, their anti-trust behavior against a new entrant, MCI, caused their court-imposed breakup and restrictions on the lines of businesses on its progeny - such as no long distance service allowed for Baby Bells etc. The intent of the Telecom Act of 1996 supported by all incumbent carriers including Verizon was to undo this line of business restriction and allow them to enter the long distance business in return for fostering competition in the monopoly "last mile" of the network by leasing their wires. I would argue in fact that the Telecom Act of 1996 has in fact been highly favorable to Verizon, and all Baby Bells, in that they have been able to emerge as the dominant players in the telecom market (be it local/long distance/wireless) with no siginficant new competiton (even with leasing the wires buried by Verizon). The only real competition is from cable companies, who have their own wires and are not dependent on the leasing arrangements you refer to above.
"What is next? Telling talk radio they have to give equal airtime to all opinions?"
At first glance, the comparison seems reasonable as radio stations own the frequencies and the content delivered over it and certainly no one could reasonably request such a regulation. However, consider the fact that are over 12,000 radio stations in the US (never mind the proliferating podcasters) versus three dominant mobile carriers (the big three account for over 75% market share). It would be more apt to compare them to highways (wires) and automobiles (text messages), prompting a much higher level of supervision.