Court Says No Go On FCC's Telecom Rules

from the not-exactly-legal dept

Last August, the FCC punted on the question of whether or not the phone companies needed to share their lines with competitors at a discount rate, saying that it was up to the states to make their own call on that issue. This was a decision that pleased almost no one, and almost immediately prompted lawsuits from unhappy phone companies. Now, a federal court has ruled that much of the rewrite of telecom rules was illegal - but that the phone companies should not be required to allow competitors access to their networks at cut-rate prices (which was the position FCC chair Michael Powell had been pushing for in the first place). Unfortunately, the various articles on this ruling are a bit short on the (fairly important) details, so hopefully a better level of analysis will come later today or tomorrow on the potential impact of this ruling.

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