I find myself disagreeing with Ars Technica on a very similar matter to one of my previous disagreements. Today, Ars is all upset that the Federal Communications Commission is considering changing the classification of DSL from a "telecommunications service" to being an "information service."[1] Ars, or at least Mr. Bangeman, disbelieves claims that the requirement that they lease lines out has discouraged phone companies from upgrading their infrastructure. He might even be right, I do not know. I do think it some what significant that Joe, even as a very junior person at Verizon, thinks that this claim might well be true. Joe's a very bright guy, and I do not think he would blindly accept such a claim. Returning to matters of fact though, it IS clear and undeniable that residential customers got a poor deal when MCI successfully used anti-trust law to break up AT&T. Residential phone service went up in price, and down in quality. Really, the only people who benefited from the breakup were those who wished to compete with AT&T. Interestingly enough, as things have been de-regulated, customer service has largely improved. Previously, I gave the rise of FedEx and UPS as an example.[2] I do not know if AT&T would again be a benevolent monopoly or not. I do not know if the local phone companies will be benevolent in their monopolies on DSL or not. If I had to guess, I would say some will and some will not. But to be blindly afraid of a monopoly, simply because a monopoly can be abused, but only has been abused in some of the cases available to us, does not a good argument make. I would like to see on what basis he would assert that the phone companies will necessarily all give bad service after this (effective) grant.
[1] Bangeman, Eric. "FCC likely to deregulate DSL"
Ars Technica 2005-08-04.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050804-5168.html
[2]
Schierer, Luke. "Public-Private partnerships" Random Unfinished
Thoughts. 2005-03-25.
http://www.schierer.org/luke/log/20050325-2059/20050325-2059