Are The Baby Bells Fiddling With Access Charges While Their Business Burns?

from the hey,-look-at-that...-competition dept

Since the Supreme Court said that the Baby Bell phone companies no longer had to share their lines at regulated rates, they've been trying to work out new deals with the competitive carriers. Of course, as you might expect, they're trying to charge quite a bit. Some are pointing out just how short-sighted this is. If they charge too much the CLECs will go away, but they also won't be a channel for them any more - and that may be increasingly important because, unlike in the past, the phone companies have a lot of competition these days. At some point, they'll realize that they're missing the big pictures trying to strangle every last dime out of the competitive carriers, and realize that they need to leverage them as they fight against other technology. At least, if the competitive carrier is reselling the line, then the Baby Bell gets the wholesale price for the line. If a competing technology gets the business, the Baby Bell gets nothing. Of course, the carriers aren't really used to being in a competitive position, so it might take them a little while to realize this.

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