SBC Wins Court Ruling, Tries To Play Nice With Losers

from the let's-work-it-out... dept

Just a day after a court ruling tossed out the FCC's ruling from last year concerning decisions on how local telephone companies need to share their lines, SBC (who was thrilled with the decision) sent out a letter to nearly 2,500 companies saying that they should all just try to work out wholesale line sharing prices between themselves, before the government felt it necessary to get involved. While the stance is designed to appear conciliatory ("let's all work it out together..."), it's anything but to most recipients of the letter. Basically, the courts were saying that it's likely going to be okay for the Baby Bells (who are anything but babies) to set their own prices on leasing their lines, rather than having the price at which they need to share fixed by the federal government. All SBC is doing by sending out this letter is basically saying that the store is open for business. They're more than willing to share... now that they can set the price - before state regulators come along and set random prices for them. This isn't so much a friendly gesture as it is a way for them, as the winners of this battle, to appear friendly while they're in the driver's seat concerning just how much these shared lines will cost.

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